Michael Avenatti, the pugnacious lawyer who rose to fame representing porn star and Trump mistress Stormy Daniels, is now a convicted criminal. A jury found him guilty today of trying to extort millions of dollars from fashion brand Nike by threatening to publicly accuse them of making illegal payments to amateur athletes. He'll be sentenced in June, and faces two other trials: one on a count of fraud, and another for allegedly stealing Daniels' book advance.Avenatti made the sign of the cross prior to the verdict being read, stared at the jury and looked down at the table. He told the lawyers, "Great job, you guys," and hugged one of them as he was led away to a backroom. He was not handcuffed."Of course there will be an appeal," Scott Srebnick, Avenatti's lead defense attorney, told CNN. Srebnick said he was going to meet with Avenatti before his cient was taken to the Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he's been in custody throughout the trial. ... Nike lawyers who took the stand during the trial said Avenatti told them he would hold a press conference claiming the company illegally paid players. In exchange for not going public, Avenatti told the lawyers in one meeting Nike would have to pay Franklin $1.5 million for any claims he had and immediately pay Avenatti and another attorney $12 million, and guarantee $15 to $25 million in payments for an internal investigation, prosecutors said."An old fashioned shakedown," as the prosecutor put it. Read the rest

Outside of Black Friday, there may be no bigger shopping day than the often-overlooked, unassuming Presidents’ Day. Sure, we can spend the day honoring Washington, Lincoln, and the rest of the crew — or we can just celebrate by embracing good old fashion American capitalism.Hewlett Packard knows which way you want to go. The tech giant is jumping into the fray with both feet this year, offering up to 60 percent off on over 130 items as part of their Presidents’ Day Sale. If you’ve had your heart set on a new desktop, laptop, or even some flashy new peripheries for your office, this may be the perfect time to strike.Here are a few of the standout offers: the HP Pavilion Laptop 15z, featuring an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor and 16GB of SDRAM, is only $549.99, a huge $750 savings off its regular price.If gaming is your thing, you can upgrade your setup with a built-to-your-specs HP OMEN Obelisk 875-1040st desktop, powered by the new NVIDIA Turing GPU and a GeForce RTX graphics card. Regularly $1,399, this gaming behemoth is $300 off, down to just $1,099.Even if you’re good with your base computer, you can also check out dozens of similarly discounted items, including printers, monitors, headphones, keyboards, software, and more.And on top of those deals, you can also throw in a special code at checkout for even bigger savings: use code 5PDS2020 to get an extra 5 percent off select configurable PCs and bundles priced at $599 or more, or use code 10PDS2020 to get an extra 10 percent off PCs and bundles over $999. Read the rest

Starting in 2007, photographer and visual effects artist Dimitris Tsalkanis has been building a digital 3D model of ancient Athens. The result is an immersive historical recreation where everyone online is invited. How did Tsalkanis handle this Herculean (rather, Heraklean) task? He learned as he went. From Sarah Rose Sharp's article about Ancient Athens 3D in Hyperallergic:“I had no previous experience on 3D and I started experimenting in my spare time,” said Tsalkanis in an email interview with Hyperallergic. “I always liked archaeology and since I am from Athens, I was always interested in its monuments and history. During my research, I realised that up until then no one had attempted a complete 3D reconstruction of ancient Athens..."Tsalkanis stays up to date with his fantasy city, updating reconstructions constantly for better quality of models and better archaeological and historical accuracy...Visitors to the site can browse reconstructions that date back as early as 1200 BCE, the Mycenaean period — or Bronze Age — through Classical Athens, featuring the rebuilds made necessary by the Greco-Persian War, and ages of occupation by Romans and Ottomans."Explore Ancient Athens Online Through 3D Models, Created by One Animator Over 12 Years" (Hyperallergic, thanks Mark Dery!)Images below: "Aerial view of the Library of Hadrian" and "Panoramic view of the Acropolis," Dimitris Tsalkanis/Ancient Athens 3D Read the rest

This is a really cool homebuilt arcade game project. “My hobby is designing and building unique arcade games from scratch,” says IMGURian @builtbyblatt. “This is The Blatt Box.”This is Speed mode. You have 45 seconds to score as many points as possible by stopping two lights in circular motion when they meet at a tangent point. Each time you score the circles and direction are randomly reset. There is a small time penalty for a wrong stop and a small time bonus for a hit. The speed increases each time you score.Check out the entire gallery, and --“If you want to support a friendly arcade artist, and see other original games, you can find me on Instagram - @BuiltByBlatt.”My hobby is designing and building unique arcade games from scratch. This is The Blatt Box. Read the rest

An orphaned black bear cub has been placed with a substitute bear mom this week after the little baby bear was saved by a family dog, and tenderly brought to safety.The amazing images of the rescued black bear cub in this post are from the Wildlife Center of Virginia, you can donate to them here.Meet Black Bear cub #20-0084. From the Wildlife Center of Virginia:On February 6, an infant male Black Bear cub was admitted to the Wildlife Center. The cub was found the evening before in Washington County when a family dog brought home the tiny cub. The homeowners were unsure where the cub came from, so they called the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF). A biologist transported the cub to the Center.Dr. Claire, the Center’s veterinary intern, examined the cub when he arrived and found that the cub was bright and alert, and vocalizing readily. The cub weighed just 540 g – smaller than cub #20-0064 at admission – and was mildly dehydrated, though otherwise was healthy.The cub was settled into an incubator, and the rehabilitation staff added him to their ‘round-the-clock bottle feeding scheduleThe wildlife rehab staff described Black Bear cub #20-0084 as bright, alert and “vocalizing readily.” They say the cub was placed with a new bear mother who was already nursing three cubs of her own on Wednesday.From Southwest Virginia Today: Staff members soon plan to introduce the cub to another cub at the center. Read the rest

He wants to know why can't bring his emotional support life-sized cutout of Trump with him to treatments

Thirty years ago today, the Voyager 1 spaceprobe had completed its ncounters with the outer planets and was careening out of our solar system. The time came to shut off the probes' cameras to preserve power and memory for the other onboard scientific instruments. But before engineers flipped the switch, one last photo opportunity was not to be missed. From my liner notes to the Voyager Golden Record vinyl box set:Astronomer and educator Carl Sagan, a member of the Voyager Imaging Team, had persuaded NASA engineers to turn Voyager 1’s cameras back toward the sun and take the first-ever portrait of our solar system from beyond its outer boundary. Sixty frames, taken on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1990, were combined into a single mosaic, known today as the “Solar System Portrait,” albeit with Mars and Mercury lost in the sun’s glare. Centered in a ray of scattered light in the camera’s optics is a tiny speck, just .12 pixels in size: Earth from 6 billion kilometers away—a “pale blue dot,” as Sagan called it. It’s an iconic image that holds the power to shift our perspective in an instant. “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world,” Sagan wrote in Pale Blue Dot (1994). “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.” Please join us in celebrating Carl Sagan's valentine to humanity:(image: NASA) Read the rest

This video has the internet legitimately divided .Dude is in the last seat on the plane. Seat doesn’t recline.Hers does. And she reclines.He’s upset, and is punching her seat incessantly— so she records.Who is right?!Who is wrong?!See you at 7p on #FOX5LION@fox5dc pic.twitter.com/jjjTLLwvEc— Marina Marraco (@MarinaMarraco) February 12, 2020Remember Wendi Williams, the woman who videotaped the man behind her who wouldn't stop punching her seat because she had reclined it?Well, TMZ has a photo of a "passenger disturbance notice" that a flight attendant handed to Williams, warning her that she could be federally prosecuted for not complying with the flight attendant's order to delete the video she'd taken of the seat puncher. The attendant also threatened to kick Williams off the plane if she didn't delete the video. Williams says she deleted the video, but was able to recover it and post it to Twitter.According to TMZ, Williams believes she may have suffered damage from the repeated punches, because she says she has had a number of back surgeries in the past as well as titanium implants in her vertebrae. She wants the seat puncher identified and prosecuted.Williams told TMZ she took the video as a way to stop the man from continuing to violently punching her seat, and that once the man realized he was being taped, he reduced the force of the punches so that they were just an "irritation."Here's the TMZ video interview with Williams:Image: Twitter screengrab Read the rest

While scientists have studied Moon rocks for 50 years, researchers have for the first time conducted deep analysis on a single grain of lunar dust, atom by atom. Using a common materials science technique called atom probe tomography that's not widely used by geologists, the Chicago Field Museum's Jennika Greer and colleagues probed the grain of soil -- about the width of a human hair -- and were able to learn about the Moon's surface its elemental composition. From the Field Museum:In that tiny grain, she identified products of space weathering, pure iron, water and helium, that formed through the interactions of the lunar soil with the space environment. Extracting these precious resources from lunar soil could help future astronauts sustain their activities on the Moon...Once the sample was inside the atom probe at Northwestern University, Greer zapped it with a laser to knock atoms off one by one. As the atoms flew off the sample, they struck a detector plate. Heavier elements, like iron, take longer to reach the detector than lighter elements, like hydrogen. By measuring the time between the laser firing and the atom striking the detector, the instrument is able to determine the type of atom at that position and its charge. Finally, Greer reconstructed the data in three dimensions, using a color-coded point for each atom and molecule to make a nanoscale 3D map of the Moon dust...Studying soil from the moon's surface gives scientists insight into an important force within our Solar System: space weathering. Read the rest

We've written here at Boing Boing before about Mike Bloomberg's awful memes, which the 2020 presidential hopeful's campaign machine crapped out on Facebook and Instagram this week with awful accounts like FuckJerry. Facebook said Friday it will allow 'influencers' like FuckJerry to produce sponsored content for political campaigns, as long as the posts are clearly identified as ads, but sponsored political content will not be placed in Facebook’s political Ad Library, unless they're "boosted" by the influencer as a paid post, the company announced on Friday. So, they're ads for political campaigns, but they're not political ads. Got it.One of the other accounts getting paid by Bloomberg's 2020 campaign is @kalesalad, a meme account run by BuzzFeed employee Samir Mezrahi. What?Reports Makena Kelly at The Verge:Before Friday, Facebook didn’t have any guidelines for influencers who create sponsored content for politicians and political campaigns. But after Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign was found to have paid popular Instagram meme pages for posts, Facebook decided to allow these paid political partnerships.Sponsored political content will not be placed in Facebook’s political Ad Library unless the creator pays to boost their posts, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Verge. Facebook does not receive any money for sponsored posts unless they are boosted.These rules will only apply in the United States for now, Facebook said. “Branded content is different from advertising, but in either case we believe it’s important people know when they’re seeing paid content on our platforms,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Verge. Read the rest

Become the best binge-watcher on the block when you add this sweet smart TV to your living room. Not only is this LG television big—hello, 86"—but it's also packed with cutting-edge tech that will finally justify all those hours you spend watching The Mandalorian. Why not take advantage of Presidents' Day sale pricing and snap one up while it's 28% off?Boasting an a7 Intelligent Processor for rich colors and details, 4K Ultra HD resolution with 8.3 million pixels, wide color gamut, and Ultra Surround sound with audio from 7 virtual channels (requiring only the built-in speakers), this smart TV will make you feel like you're part of the action. Also inside its sleek and slim 3.7" frame are features like Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, advanced tone mapping for scene-by-scene optimization, in-plane switching to maintain a more consistent contrast ratio even at wide viewing angles, and built-in Channel Plus service that offers free streaming of full-length movies and today's top 130+ popular channels.Its award-winning OS makes working through the interface super easy, whether you're looking for your favorite app or linking up your compatible smart home devices. Speaking of, AI ThinQ technology allows for voice interaction, so you can tell your TV what to do—at least when it comes to said devices (Alexa, Google Assistant).So if you missed out on those postseason football TV sales, now's a great time to pull the trigger on a serious upgrade to your home entertainment (you'll save loads of money on going out), because the LG 86" 4K HDR Smart LED UHD TV with AI ThinQ is down to $2149.99. Read the rest

RompHim, the rompers-for-men company that achieved viral success a couple of years back, is going out of business. CNN reports that the initial focus on marketing to straight bros limited their appeal from the outset. Remaining stock is 75% off if you want one. Read the rest

Now acquitted by the Senate, the president can glibly admit to what he was accused of. In a chat last night with Geraldo Rivera, Donald Trump says he sent Rudy Giuliani to Ukraine to dig for dirt on political opponents, a fact he insisted was not so during his impeachment trial."Here's my choice: I deal with the Comeys of the world, or I deal with Rudy," Trump said, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. Trump explained that he has "a very bad taste" of the US intelligence community, because of the Russia investigation, so he turned to Giuliani."So when you tell me, why did I use Rudy, and one of the things about Rudy, number one, he was the best prosecutor, you know, one of the best prosecutors, and the best mayor," Trump said. "But also, other presidents had them. FDR had a lawyer who was practically, you know, was totally involved with government. Eisenhower had a lawyer. They all had lawyers." Read the rest

One Zachary Bisenio created a handy chart illustrating age differences in Disney couples. There are some interesting surprises, to be sure, but also lots of statutory rape. Read the rest

Staff at a Wendy's in Greenville, Michigan, are out of a job after video of someone taking a bath in the kitchen sink there went viral.A 23-second video shared on Facebook, originally posted to the TikTok social media platform, shows a young man partially submerged in a ware-washing industrial sink system — normally used to wash kitchen items — laughing and joking inside the restaurant with other employees. ... In the video, one employee wearing a Wendy’s uniform jokingly says “wash yourself” to the individual in the sink. That individual responds with, “It feels like, it feels like a hot tub. I’m just enjoying life,” as a third person recorded the video while additional laughing can be heard in the background. Read the rest

Pyongyang claims that North Korea has no cases of coronavirus, having closed its border with China and suspended all tourism. Experts are skeptical, reports the Daily Mirror, and South Korean media claims that an official returning from China was executed on the spot after it was learned he visited a public spa while there.The trade official, who had been placed in isolation after traveling to China, was arrested and immediately shot for risking the spread of the deadly disease, the Dong-a Ilbo news outlet in South Korea reported.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to “rule by military law” against anyone who leaves quarantine without permission.Photo: North Korean media Read the rest

The wonderfully talented artist and illustrator, Michelle Rial, posted this D & D character alignment chart to her Twitter feed.I need a new hobby pic.twitter.com/bRn5QJ4u90— Michelle Rial (@TheRialMichelle) February 14, 2020Which alignment are you? Would you use different candy hearts?Happy Valentine's Day!Image: Used with Permission Read the rest

This is so amazing. Watch what happens when a blacksmithing anvil is lowered into a large vat of pure liquid mercury.[H/t Alberto Gaitán via Bryce Lynch]Image: Screengrab from GIF Read the rest

China's government health commission in Hubei province reported on Friday that the daily death toll from coronavirus rose by 116.The Hubei province health commission did not report the total number of deaths from the newly identified virus, which was 1,310 on Thursday. From Reuters:Of the new deaths, 88 occurred in the provincial capital of Wuhan, where the flu-like virus is believed to have originated late last year.A further 4,823 cases had been detected in Hubei, taking the total in the province to 51,986. Over four fifths of the province’s new cases were in Wuhan.The daily toll rose by a record of more than 240 on Thursday after the commission began counting cases diagnosed through new clinical methods. More from Twitter, below.The Hubei health authority has reported that 116 more people died of the coronavirus in Hubei province on Thursday.This brings the total number of deaths in mainland China to at least 1,483, with a global total of 1,486. https://t.co/l48rloavyC— CNN International (@cnni) February 14, 2020China's Hubei province reports 116 new coronavirus deaths https://t.co/1m1LQT2iuG pic.twitter.com/qp5MAMFiAM— Reuters (@Reuters) February 14, 2020#Coronavirus latest updates: death rate in China's Hubei slows after spike – live news https://t.co/Ecgq86xn5C— Guardian US (@GuardianUS) February 14, 2020PHOTO, top: Provided by the Government of China through Xinhua, the official state media outlet.A doctor wearing goggles is seen at Xianghu Hospital of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Feb. 6, 2020. Read the rest

Canned air is a big help in dusting tight spaces, particularly keyboards, shelves or servers. But the first thing you should know about canned air is that it's not air at all. More likely, what's blowing out of that bottle is fluorocarbons or other mildly toxic substances.Luckily, there's an easy alternative: The X3 Hurricane Variable Speed Canless Air Duster.Like canned air, this system is compact enough to tackle all your tight workspaces. And it's just as quiet, with a trigger that lets you control the power level - ideal for busy offices where you don't want your cleaning routine to disturb your workmates.The big difference is that its motor uses the ambient air instead of some "canned" substitute, blowing it efficiently at up to 260 mph or more. Best of all, it's rechargeable and reusable, which a big advantage over canned air both environmentally and economically.Speaking of economical, the X3 Hurricane Variable Speed Canless Air Duster is now on sale for almost 25% off the MSRP. Read the rest

Robert Pattinson is The Batman in director Matt Reeves's take on the dark knight. Pattinson is best known from the Twilight series while Reeves was behind the lens on Cloverfield (2008), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).The Batman's cinematographer is Greig Fraser with a score by Michael Giacchino. Costume design is by Jacqueline Durran, Glyn Dillon, and David Crossman.Release date: June 25, 2021. Read the rest

Here are seven of my favorite DIY/maker tips published this year in my weekly newsletter, Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales. Etching Metal with a 9v BatteryEtching is easier than you think. Leah of See Jane Drill demonstrates how easy it is to etch a metal surface using little more than a 9v battery and wires, vinegar, salt, and Q-tips.Finding the Thickness of a WireEmory Kimbrough was one of the winners of my Tips book drawing in December. I asked contestants for one great tip. Emory sent me ten. And then, a few days later, he sent me another five – all publication-worthy. I’m excited to share them. Look for more Emory tips in the coming months. Here’s the first one:If you need to find the thickness of a wire but don’t have a micrometer or calipers, wrap the wire around a dowel many times in a tight helix leaving no gaps between the coils. Now, just measure the width of, say, thirty coils with an ordinary ruler and divide by thirty. The more coils you wind, the more accurate your measurement. And even if you do use top-quality digital calipers, it’s even more accurate if you use this wind-and-divide method than if you measure a single thickness.Organize Cables in Dollar Store Pencil CasesThe column I’m currently working on for HackSpace magazine will cover workshop storage and organizing. As part of my research, I asked for relevant storage ideas on my Facebook page. My friend Jake Hildebrandt shared this idea. Read the rest

On Legs McNeil's Please Kill Me, Michael Shelly interviews the legendary bass player, Carol Kaye. Unless you're a hardcore music nerd, you may not know who Carol Kaye is. You need to fix that. Carol Kaye is the bassist on thousands of 20th century recordings, from The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds to Nancy Sinatra's These Boots are Made for Walkin', to Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman. Oh, and she also played on the Mothers of Invention's Freak Out! and the Batman theme song. The list goes on and on and on. Get this woman into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, stat!PKM: When producers, like Brian Wilson with “Good Vibrations,” would do a single song in parts over many sessions was that frustrating or fun for you?Carol Kaye: You know Brian was a nice young kid. We worked for a lot of those young guys back then and Brian had something special about him, and he grew with every date. You saw his talent getting better and better and better. He’d only do one song for a three-hour date and that does get boring after a while, but he would come in and he’d give you this handwritten, kind of funny sheet music with stems on the wrong side of the notes and sharps and flats everywhere. He would sit down at the piano and play the song, to kind of give us a feel for it, and then he’d go in the booth and take charge from there. Read the rest

Let the co-creator of Prime Climb explain how to play this fast-moving game of quickly changing fortunes. It's on sale today on Amazon. Read the rest

A federal civil rights lawsuit filed this week claims that severely intellectually and physically disabled patients at a state-operated home in Iowa were used as “guinea pigs” in sexual arousal research experiments.A 38-page complaint was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. In it, former University of Kansas assistant professor and child psychologist, 63-year-old Jerry Rea, is charged with experimenting on the “highly vulnerable” patients at the Glenwood Resource Center. The Des Moines Register reported that Jerry Rea's affiliation with the University of Kansas ended when Rea moved to Iowa. Rea was fired from Glenwood when the feds started looking into abuse allegations last December.“The deeply disturbing allegations come after the same Iowa facility found itself in federal law enforcement crosshairs,” reports Olivia Messer at The Daily Beast:The lawsuit claims that Rea, along with the facility’s other top administrators, used taxpayer money to purchase tools under the auspices of research, including silk sheets, boxer shorts, sexual lubricants, a computer, a software program, and pornographic images. The facility's administrators did not “obtain informed consent” from the patients’ guardians prior to beginning research and later “scramble[d]” to “get consent on behalf of patients that had been experimented on after receiving notice of a new Department of Justice investigation” in 2019, the suit claims.The plans for Rea’s research allegedly included the use of a portable GPS device for measuring sexual arousal, and the plaintiffs note he and a partner received a federal patent in 1998 for a device designed to detect and monitor the sexual arousal of an individual while they are exposed to “real-life sexual stimuli.” Read the rest

Researchers at MIT say the voting app Voatz, which is being used by at least 4 states in the 2020 elections, has major security flaws that could allow an attacker to intercept and alter votes, while making voters think their votes have been cast correctly, or trick the votes server into accepting connections from an attacker.Here's the MIT research paper on Voatz.Excerpt from Kim Zetter's reporting for VICE: An attacker would also be able to alter the user’s vote and trick the user into believing their vote was transmitted accurately, researchers from the Massachusetts Technology Institute write in a paper released Thursday.The app, called Voatz, also has problems with how it handles authentication between the voter’s mobile phone and the backend server, allowing an attacker to impersonate a user’s phone. Even more surprising, although the makers of Voatz have touted its use of blockchain technology to secure the transmission and storage of votes, the researchers found that the blockchain isn’t actually used in the way Voatz claims it is, thereby supplying no additional security to the system.Read the full report at VICE NEWS:'Sloppy' Mobile Voting App Used in Four States Has 'Elementary' Security Flaws[Kim Zetter Feb 13 2020]Worth noting that in addition to today's MIT research warning of significant vulns in Voatz, we also have a DHS report that found no evidence of malicious activity but plenty of recs for improved security. Voatz hadn't previously made any reports public.https://t.co/4WEqslXXxp— Kevin Collier (@kevincollier) February 13, 2020Calling the app 'Voatz' didn't really inspire confidence to start with. Read the rest

Aww, the sycophant is sick of it.Today, impeached president Donald Trump's manifestly corrupt personal attorney general Bill Barr said in an interview with ABC News, “The president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case,” but that Trump should stop tweeting about the Justice Department because the president's tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Donald Trump has been completely unhinged on Twitter lately, making obviously inappropriate and probably unlawful comments about Roger Stone's prison sentencing that indicate not only his likely involvement in obstruction of justice, but which also implicate Barr -- not something Barr wants, I'd imagine.From the transcript:"Well, I have a problem with some of, some of the tweets. As I said at my confirmation hearing, I think the essential role of the attorney general is to keep law enforcement, the criminal process sacrosanct to make sure there is no political interference in it."“To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here, about cases pending in the department, and about judges when we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job.”Mean tweets.Hey, Bill?Then, resign.EXCLUSIVE: Attorney General Bill Barr tells @ABC News “the president has never asked me to do anything in a criminal case”—but should stop tweeting about the Justice Dept. because his tweets “make it impossible for me to do my job.” https://t.co/18O3rlUGIn— ABC News (@ABC) February 13, 2020EXCLUSIVE: Attorney Gen. Read the rest

The IRS removed language from their Web site that listed Fortnite V-Bucks and Roblox Robux as examples of convertible virtual currencies, like Bitcoin. They were included on a page about virtual currencies as they relate to a new question on IRS Form 1040 that asks whether the taxpayer, sold, exchanged, or acquired financial interest in any virtual currency. From Bloomberg:The language was removed hours after Bloomberg Tax asked if gamers who purchased or earned in-game currencies would have to disclose that on their 2019 tax returns.IRS Chief Counsel Michael Desmond indicated that the inclusion of the video game currencies was a mistake, though he offered no insight on how they ended up alongside Bitcoin on the list of examples.“It was corrected and that was done quickly—as soon as it was brought to our attention,” Desmond told reporters Thursday at a Tax Council Policy Institute conference in Washington...Desmond demurred when asked to confirm that gamers wouldn’t need to mark ‘yes’ to the new 1040 question, but said addressing gaming currencies in the virtual currency context isn’t a major focus for the agency right now.image: Epic Games Read the rest

Scientists say 20.75º C logged at Seymour Island is ‘incredible and abnormal’

A court in Moscow today issued fines of 4 million rubles each against Twitter and Facebook for the social media companies' refusal to store data about Russian citizens inside Russia.The fines of nearly $63,000 are, as the saying goes, barely a rounding error for either of those massive internet companies. But they're the largest fines Russia has levied against any tech company since president Vladimir Putin began tightening his grip on the internet starting around 2012, with a bunch of new laws that give his government greater powers to surveil citizens online. From the Associated Press:One provision required tech companies to keep servers in Russia for storing personal information they gather from Russian citizens. Russia’s internet regulator, Roskomnadzor, has tried unsuccessfully for several years to force large companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google to move Russian user data to Russia.Commenting on Thursday’s court rulings, Roskomnadzor said Twitter and Facebook would be fined 18 million rubles ($283,000) each if they don’t comply this year.Last year, Twitter and Facebook were fined the equivalent of $47 each for violating the same personal data regulation. The punishment had no effect on the two companies, so in December Russian authorities increased the fines. More at AP:Twitter, Facebook fined for not moving user data to Russia Read the rest

With the rise of the gig economy, it's easier than ever to either make extra money or work on something you're passionate about. If one of your passions happens to be photos—taking or editing them—you've got lots of options for jumping in, including starting your own business. Seriously. Even with no prior experience, you can follow your creative dreams with this 10-course Side Photography Business Bundle.Most Americans have reported getting into the side hustle game, earning over $8000 a year on average. There's no better moment to dive in, especially since it's so easy to learn in your spare time with this 300-lesson course bundle that covers everything from how to start a business to shooting and editing photos to marketing yourself and more.Leverage the information in this bundle, presented by professionals who are teachers, photo retouchers and editors, and Photoshop masters, and you'll learn essential skills for any budding photographer including camera basics like focus, white balance, flash, creative filters, and burst mode, plus deep dives for Canon and Nikon models.Know your way around an f-stop already? You'll benefit from courses that cover advanced editing techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop, including insights on how to make your retouching more creative.For anyone, the course on going pro with your own business is essential. It includes info on registration, licenses, taxes, creating a website, marketing, and more. As a really cool bonus, you'll learn about an app for shooting long exposure photos with an iPhone, and there's a whole course on travel photography, from prep to final editing, using any camera: DSLR, mirrorless, smartphone, or point-and-shoot. Read the rest

NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth reporter Katy Blakey posted impressive video from a road in Southlake, Texas where thieves picked a Chevrolet Silverado clean, leaving not much more than the shell of the cab behind. There's been a rash of Silverado thefts in the area, possibly because the OnStar tracking systems are easily disabled, according to police. From NBC-DFW:“Within 3 minutes [thieves] were able to pop the lock, pop the hood, change the computer, disable the OnStar and steal my truck,” (said Silverado theft victim Jarrod Hamlin, who reviewed surveillance footage of the crime.)He tried to log on to his MyChevy app to use OnStar to track the vehicle, but it showed a failed connection and he realized OnStar had been disabled.So he called police, filed a report, then turned to social media and started hearing similar stories from other Silverado owners in the area.“They all said the same thing: no glass was broken, their keys weren’t used and the OnStar was disabled so fast that a lot of these people said OnStar’s last known location was in front of my house,” Hamlin said.(via Geekologie) Read the rest

WTF is even going on anymore.Today, impeached president Donald John Trump did another bad thing right out in the open.And I'm not even talking about the dumb 'The Godfather' joke.On Twitter, he said New York “must stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment” if state residents want the ability to apply for 'Global Entry' status with the Department of Homeland Security. The program, which costs $100 to apply for, enters you in a federal database and allows you to go through TSA airport screenings quickly and with a little shred of your dignity sort of intact. This is super wrong and seems against the law? But nothing matters.Here's how the former director of the Office of Government Ethics responded.Holy cow! He appears to be engaging in another quid pro quo right before our eyes. I don't know what to say but HOLY COW! NY must drop its lawsuits against him if New Yorkers want Global Entry status? HOLY COW!!! HOLY COW!!! https://t.co/4NPUgc9LNt— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) February 13, 2020Again, here is what President Trump is demanding in the screenshotted tweet above: the governor and law enforcement entities of New York, a state which was his residence until very recently, must stop investigating Trump family crimes if New York residents want to receive federal services.This is fine.Also, however -- Trump appears to believe that Cuomo, the governor, is responsible for filing these lawsuits against Trump.He's not.The state attorney general is, you big dummy. Read the rest

A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered the Pentagon to temporarily halt work on the cloud computing 'JEDI' contract, in what represents a major win for Amazon.com and Jeff Bezos.In granting Amazon.com’s request for a preliminary injunction, the court has effectively paused the U.S. Department of Defense and Microsoft's up-to-$10 billion cloud computing deal. Amazon.com claimed they were unfairly discriminated against in the federal contract granting process by the administration of Donald Trump.Judge Patricia E. Campbell-Smith made public her order but did release a sealed opinion accompanying the decision. She also ordered Amazon to post $42 million in the event that the injunction was issued wrongfully.Earlier this week, Amazon’s Amazon Web Services unit said it was seeking to depose President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Mark Esper in its lawsuit over whether the president was trying “to screw Amazon” over the contract. NEW: A federal judge has temporarily blocked Microsoft from starting work on the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar JEDI cloud contract until Amazon’s contracting protest can be resolved. pic.twitter.com/NzfXzMIbR2— Brian Fung (@b_fung) February 13, 2020Court orders Pentagon to halt work on Microsoft’s JEDI cloud contract after Amazon protestsvia @Post_AG https://t.co/DmSRDUVlpb— Washington Post PR (@WashPostPR) February 13, 2020A judge has approved Amazon’s request to temporarily halt Microsoft’s work on the $10 billion JEDI contract. https://t.co/62BdZfZOZJ pic.twitter.com/xzGIxa1ViU— CNBC (@CNBC) February 13, 2020Judge grants preliminary injunction barring @DeptofDefense from proceeding with #JEDI contract awarded to @Microsoft over @amazon.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) February 13, 2020Judge grants preliminary injunction barring Pentagon from proceeding with JEDI contract awarded to Microsoft; orders Amazon to put up $42 million in event that the injunction was wrongfully issued pic.twitter.com/W9mb6oqCGG Read the rest

Like sands through an hourglass are the days of Royal lives, as this week’s tabloids continue the gripping saga of the bold and the beautiful behind palace doors.

White House plans to divert $3.8 billion from DoD to build Trump's long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, for which he lied that Mexico would pay “Trump is preparing to divert $3.8 Billion in total from programs across the Department of Defense,” tweeted Foreign Policy reporter Lara Seligman today, “including a controversial war account used to fund emergency requirements, as well as the procurement of ships, aircraft and Army vehicles, to build the wall.”An excerpt from her scoop for FP:For the second year in a row, Trump will raid the Department of Defense’s coffers for money for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, dipping into funds earmarked for counterdrug activities and military construction. But this year, a significant chunk of those dollars will be funneled from a controversial war, according to a Feb. 13 reprogramming action signed by acting Pentagon comptroller Elaine McCusker obtained by Foreign Policy.The account, the Overseas Contingency Operations fund, was established after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to fund emergency requirements. It has been criticized as a “slush fund” used to circumvent mandatory spending limits set by Congress. As it did last year, the White House is planning to transfer funds from elsewhere in the Pentagon’s budget into the counterdrug account. From there, the White House has argued it can legally transfer that money to build additional miles of the wall under U.S. Code Section 284 (b). In total, the department plans to divert $1.6 billion from the Overseas Contingency Operations account to the counterdrug account, according to the reprogramming. Read the rest

Three female mountain gorillas -- one pregnant -- and one male infant were killed by lightning in Uganda's Mgahinga National Park. With just 1,000 or so left in the world, their deaths is a "big loss for the species," according to the Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration that works to conserve wildlife in the region. From the BBC News:The four that died were part of a 17-member group, which has been called the Hirwa family by the authorities."The potential of the three females for their contribution to the population was immense," (GVTC executive secretary Andrew) Seguya said.He added that the 13 surviving members of the Hirwa family have been found and are feeding well.image: "Mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei), 10 month old baby, Titus Group, Rwanda" by Charles J Sharp (CC BY-SA 4.0) Read the rest

My old friend and favorite DJ, DF Tram, pulls threads from from far-out jazz, psych, experimental ambient, spoken word, downtempo EDM, and avant-garde classical to create transgenre ambient mixes. A crate digger of the highest order, he has turned me on to countless artists, tracks, and albums that I'd never hear anywhere else. A collaborator with Alex Patterson, Mixmaster Morris, and Youth, DF Tram has toured with The Orb and performed at the most prestigious electronic music festivals in the world including The Big Chill, Glastonbury, and OZORA. Above is his live set from the 2019 OZORA Festival. Lose yourself.Artwork: Imaginary Foundation Read the rest

Remember back in 2017, when the entire Right Wing Propaganda Machine suddenly decided that Antifa — literally just some loose affiliations of scrappy anarchists in black bloc attire — were the single greatest threat that humanity had ever faced? (And were also somehow being funded by Hillary Clinton and the DNC and George Soros even though they're anarchists and not liberals?)One such event, which threw the National Review into a tizzy, involved the Cedar Creek Battlefield Foundation, which had to cancel its annual re-enactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek for fear of violent attacks by "lib-terrorists" in balaclavas who are somehow also snowflakes. The group received a letter, in an envelope marked with a red-and-black flag, saying:You need to cancel your coming up celebration of the Civil War on October 13, 14, 15, 2017…Many of us have dogs, so will bring dog feces to throw on people! We will also throw cups of human urine! We might resort to actually firing guns into the camps and at the re-enactors! We will put poison in the water, we will use noise to disrupt the battles and sleep! These events must stop! Our local organizer tells us he is ready to go! You have been warned, now if it is not called off, we will destroy you! You have less than 1 month to issue a cancellation notice, do it asap!Then, during the actual event, an unexploded pipebomb was found on the premises — further proof of the Intolerant Left and their evil agenda. Read the rest

Bret Michael Wilson (57) (aka the "Nighttime Nailer") received a 30-day sentence for criminal mischief and four counts of disorderly conduct after admitting that he had thrown roofing nails onto busy Oregon streets for two years, reports The Oregonian. He will also have to pay $2,000 in restitution and refrain from drinking alcohol.From the article:Oregon City police finally arrested Wilson in October after officers who were staking out The Nighttime Nailer saw him chuck fistfuls of nails from his car as he drove along South Center Street before dawn.After he was nabbed, the suspect copped to scattering the metal spikes numerous times before.“By Mr. Wilson’s recollection, he has thrown nails over 50 times onto our busy streets over the last couple of years,” police said in a news release at the time.Wilson’s early morning ritual — always done before sunrise so as to avoid detection — was in response to drivers he felt were rude or had slighted him, Brock said.“It was his form of anger management. It made him feel better,” Brock said.Image: Clackamas County Sheriff's Office Read the rest

In the new book, Sinking in the Swamp: How Trump's Minions and Misfits Poisoned Washington, by Lachlan Markay and Asawin Suebsaeng, it's revealed that Trump appeared to have an interest in badgers:After Trump was reminded that the short-legged omnivore was practically synonymous with the Badger State, he'd make a point of bringing it up at seemingly random occasions to his beleaguered chief of staff [Reince Priebus, a Wisconsin native]."Are they mean to people?" Trump at least twice asked Priebus in the opening months of his presidency. "Or are they friendly creatures?" The president would also ask if Priebus had any photos of badgers he could show him, and if Priebus could carefully explain to him how badgers "work" exactly.He wanted Reince —--resident White House badger historian, apparently -- to explain to him Wisconsin's obsession with the animal, how the little critters function and behave, what kind of food they like, and how aggressive or deadly they could be when presented with perceived existential threats.Trump also wanted to know if the badger had a "personality" or if it was boring. What kind of damage could a badger to do a person with its flashy, sharp claws?An obviously enthralled president would stare at Priebus as the aide struggled for sufficiently placating answers, all the while trying to gently veer the conversation back to whether we were going to do a troop surge in Afghanistan or strip millions of Americans of healthcare coverage.[via Business Insider]Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash Read the rest

NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) said a "potentially hazardous" asteroid is headed our way. According to NASA, "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs) are currently defined based on parameters that measure the asteroid's potential to make threatening close approaches to the Earth."The asteroid, with the catchy name 163373 (2002 PZ39), is taller than the largest human-made building and is moving at 34,000 miles an hour, reports International Business Times.From the article:NASA and other space agencies have warned that kilometer-sized asteroids can do a lot of damage to Earth. If 163373 (2002 PZ39) hits the planet, its initial blast would instantly kill off millions.Then, due to its size, the energy from its explosion would be enough to trigger a global nuclear winter that could last for years. The harsh environmental changes triggered by the asteroid’s impact could lead to the mass extinction of different species.According to CNEOS, 163373 (2002 PZ39)’s near-Earth intersection will happen on Feb. 15 at 6:05 a.m. EST. During this time, the asteroid will pass over the planet from a distance of 0.03860 astronomical units or around 3.6 million miles away.Image: by NASA - [1], Public Domain, Link Read the rest

Robo Revenge is the latest brainchild of Joshua Browder, creator of the robolawyer parking-ticket-fighting app called DoNotPay. Robo Revenge gives you a burner credit card, which provides its robolawyer with the contact info for the telemarketer, and then files a suit against them. Vice has more details:Robo Revenge combines both features to automatically add you to the Do Not Call Registry, generate a virtual DoNotPay burner credit card to provide scammers when they illegally call you anyways, use the transaction information to get the scammer’s contact information, then walk you through how to sue them for as much as $3,000 per call under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a law already on the books meant to protect consumers from calls that violate the Do Not Call Registry. The app also streamlines the litigation paperwork by automatically generating demand letters and court filing documents.“There are two types of scammers. There are the scammers based abroad who are trying to get your bank details—those people you can’t sue because you don’t even know where they are. But the type we can stop is the businesses like a U.S. based travel company trying to sell you a cruise and asking for your credit card number,” Browder said. “We can take them out with U.S. based laws. If they’re calling someone and every time they’re calling someone, there’s a risk of a penalty, maybe they’ll think twice.”Exciting news! We are launching a new service that gets you compensation from robocallers:1. Read the rest

Just in time for Valentine's Day, NPR's All Songs Considered spoke with a bunch of celebrated songwriters such as Phoebe Bridgers and M. Ward and asked them about the love songs that they wish they'd written — the masterful melodies and heartfelt turns of phrase that other poets envy and only dream to one day emulate.It's also just a really great playlist of songs. And now it has me thinking of which song I would choose myself.Since both "First Day of My Life" and "Love Song" were already chosen for this list, I think I'd have to go with "The Way I Feel Inside" by the Zombies or "She Is Beautiful" by Andrew WK.What would you pick?The Love Song I Wish I'd Written [Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton / NPR] Read the rest

A man reportedly exposed his genitals at a Houston Whataburger, then was struck and killed by an 18-wheeler truck while fleeing on foot. CBS Austin reports that police had arrived and tried to arrest him, but did not pursue him into the freeway.It happened around 10:15 p.m. at the Whataburger on East Freeway and Wayside.Houston Police officers responded to a call for a man exposing himself at the drive thru.When the officer arrived, the man took off on foot, running across I-10. Read the rest

British Prime minister Boris Johnson today pushed out five cabinet members and saw another quit rather than accept the terms of staying on, reports the BBC. Sajiv Javid, exiting his role as Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that Johnson demanded he replace his aides with people hand-picked by Downing Street, a condition "no self-respecting minister" would accept. Sacked colleagues untarnished by the remark include Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith and Business Secretary Andrea Leadsom; those remaining to consider their self-respect include Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.Javid's replacement is a man who was a junior housing minister barely months ago, described by one opposition MP as a "stooge" of top Johnson advisor Dominic Cummings. Cummings was reported to have already sidelined Javid, who refused to agree to big spending plans and tax cuts that the government hopes to sweeten Brexit with.He has been replaced as chancellor by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak - who just seven months ago was a junior housing minister. Mr Javid had been due to deliver his first Budget in four weeks' time. The former home secretary was appointed chancellor by Mr Johnson when he became prime minister in July. His resignation follows rumours of tensions between Mr Javid and the prime minister's senior adviser Dominic Cummings.Barely weeks after a general election victory! Read the rest

The gym is a responsibility for most of us, not a calling. We go because we need to shore up damage from a sedentary lifestyle and bad eating choices. So as we dutifully work to battle gluttony and decay, all we want is some help to make those hours of sweating a little less painful.Music and podcasts are how most of us survive those sessions -- and the TREBLAB xFit Bluetooth Sports headphones are just the workout buddy needed to help you power through.These ultra-lightweight ergonomic wireless buds are weighted to sit snugly in your ears without falling out while perfectly pouring on the sound, no matter whether you’re running and working out or even just commuting or out running errands.Of course, the xFits aren’t just a pretty face -- they’re designed with a roster of cool features as well. When synced via Bluetooth 5.0, you’ll enjoy advanced passive noise cancellation, multi-device connection support and a built-in mic for handling single-touch smartphone calls, all through a single button control.While most wireless buds get by on 4 to 5 hours of battery life, the xFits can go up to six on a single charge, but you also get an extra 25 hours of juice out of the tiny charging case that can easily slide into your pocket, so you’re always ready.But it really doesn’t matter how the xFits look and operate if they don’t sound fantastic too. Thankfully, these top-flight buds deliver true HD sound with crystal clear treble and soul-bouncing bass to rival any wireless earbuds you’ll find. Read the rest

Iowa Democratic party chairman Troy Price, who oversaw last week's botched caucus, today announced his resignation. A half-baked precinct reporting app failed on the night and paper headcounts took several days to gather and count. Moreover, the close race and bizarre caucus rules led to Pete Buttigieg winning the most delegates despite trailing rival Bernie Sanders by thousands of votes. Pete Buttigieg won with a narrow 0.1% victory over Bernie Sanders in terms of delegates, while Senator Sanders won the popular vote. Since then, the Sanders campaign has asked for a "recanvassing" check of the vote. Iowa Democratic leaders will elect a new local leader on Saturday.Photo: YouTube Screengrab Read the rest

I've just watched a trailer for The Iron Mask, a forthcoming Russian/Chinese movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger appears to be playing the chief beefeater at the Tower of London with Jackie Chan as his prisoner. Jason Flemyng, Charles Dance and Rutger Hauer (his final performance!?) are also in it. And now you will watch this trailer also. [via Syfy]The Iron Mask sees action legends Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger team up in a high concept fantasy historical epic featuring breath-taking fights and stunning visuals. Set in the 18th century, The Iron Mask follows English traveller Jonathan Green as he journeys from Russia to China encountering dragons, black magic wizardry and a dragon king during an incredible but deadly adventure. The movie was released in 2019 in Russia and China as Viy 2, the sequel to an earlier fantasy adventure also starring Flemyng and Dance. It only got a limited release in the west but they're giving this one the blockbuster rollout thanks to the beefed-up cast. I get the feeling the Flemyng-in-China stuff is the actual movie and the Schwarzenegger-Chan thing is a brief frame story around it. Read the rest

The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake was Japan's worst of all time, leading to more than 15,000 deaths and meltdowns at three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. But all the footage I'd seen of it was of the subsequent tsunami and flooding that claimed most victims' lives. Here's high-definition footage of the earthquake itself, shot by a traveler in an airport. First, there's the shock and chaos of the quake; then the waters come. I didn't see anyone hurt in this footage, but it's terrifying all the same. Read the rest