I missed this NPR video when it first came out, but I came across it today on the delightful Doobybrain website. It's about the evolution of the supermarket apple from the "mealy and tough-skinned" Red Delicious to the mouth-watering Honeycrisp. (I really want apple slices with peanut butter right now.)
Tuesday 30 April 2019
Lowest price I've seen on a six-pack of Gildan T-shirts
Gildan crew T-shirts are very inexpensive and comfortable. Today's price is the lowest I can recall. If I didn't already have a shirt drawer bursting with Gildan tees, I'd buy another six pack.
Vlogger visits Los Angeles establishents with 1-star Yelp ratings
Mar is a vlogger who likes to visit LA's worst restaurants, nail and hair salons, massage parlors, and the like. Above, she visits the worst Yelp-rated buffet in her city.
Having a bad day?
“Singing in the Rain,” with a pug wearing electric windshield wiper goggles.
Silly Marshmallow the white pug.
You're welcome.
[YouTube Link, originally published in 2016]
Kitty is a fluff-butt
It's so fluffy!
[faints of cute]
Mirror, Mirror on the wall - Who has the fluffiest tail of all?
[via]
BARR COVERUP: Mueller told A.G. he failed to capture ‘context, nature, substance’ of Trump Russia report
“There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
— ROBERT MUELLER, in a letter to Trump attorney general Bill Barr.
The WaPo reports tonight that Robert Mueller wrote a letter to Bill Barr, in which the special counsel told Trump's handpicked attorney general his charm offensive in advance of the redacted report's release failed to capture the true 'context, nature, and substance' of the report's contents.
In his letter, Mueller made an important demand to Barr: release the 448-page report’s introductions and executive summaries. Mueller even offered suggested redactions, Justice Department officials told the Washington Post.
Mueller is effectively saying he was betrayed by Barr.
Barr lied.
From the Washington Post's Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky:
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III wrote a letter in late March complaining to Attorney General William P. Barr that a four-page memo to Congress describing the principal conclusions of the investigation into President Trump “did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance” of Mueller’s work, according to a copy of the letter reviewed Tuesday by The Washington Post.
At the time the letter was sent on March 27, Barr had announced that Mueller had not found a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials seeking to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Barr also said Mueller had not reached a conclusion about whether Trump had tried to obstruct justice, but Barr reviewed the evidence and found it insufficient to support such a charge.
Days after Barr’s announcement, Mueller wrote a previously unknown private letter to the Justice Department, which revealed a degree of dissatisfaction with the public discussion of Mueller’s work that shocked senior Justice Department officials, according to people familiar with the discussions.
“The summary letter the Department sent to Congress and released to the public late in the afternoon of March 24 did not fully capture the context, nature, and substance of this office’s work and conclusions,” Mueller wrote. “There is now public confusion about critical aspects of the results of our investigation. This threatens to undermine a central purpose for which the Department appointed the Special Counsel: to assure full public confidence in the outcome of the investigations.”
Read the rest: Mueller complained that Barr’s letter did not capture ‘context’ of Trump probe [washingtonpost.com]
Moments after the WaPo piece hit the wires, a parallel and confirming report came out in the New York Times, citing as sources “the Justice Department and three people with direct knowledge of the communication between the two men.” Read more: Mueller Objected to Barr’s Description of Russia Investigation’s Findings [nytimes.com]
Kickstarter for the Bitty -- a pocket drum machine/synthesizer
Nickolas Peter Chelyapov, founder of Curious Sound Object, has launched a kickstarter for fun electronic musical instrument called the Bitty. You can get one for $78. Below, some music made with a Bitty.
Mass shooting at UNC Charlotte leaves 2 killed, 4 injured [DEVELOPING]
Two people were killed and four others were injured at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency confirmed in a post on Twitter on Tuesday evening.
WASHINGTON POST:
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte warned the campus on Tuesday evening of shots being fired and urged people to “Run, Hide, Fight.” Campus buildings were locked down.
A university spokeswoman could not immediately confirm what had happened Tuesday, but on social media school officials warned people to take cover. They said shots had been reported near the Kennedy building, one of the first structures to be built on campus and now home to administrative offices.
Is water better at freeing up rusty nuts and bolts than penetrating oil? This guy finds out
Project Farm is an excellent YouTube channel about machinery. In this episode, they run a test to see if water is better than penetrating oils and diesel fuel for getting rusted nuts and bolts loose.
Image: YouTube
Duke University acquires the archives of Charles N Brown, founder of Locus Magazine
Charlie ("Charles N") Brown was the force behind Locus Magazine (previously) until his death in 2009; he hired me to be a columnist for the magazine in 2006 and I've been writing for them ever since.
Charlie was such a prolific collector you could be forgiven for calling him a hoarder (the distinction is always hard to make!) and his archive contained some of the great rarities of science fiction.
That collection is now in the hands of Duke University's David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, which has taken delivery of 1,000 boxes of paper ephemera, correspondence, books, and memoribilia. Duke instructors are encouraged to make use of the collection: English professor Michael D’Alessandro brought students enrolled in a class in "utopias and dystopias in American literature" to see the materials firsthand.
I recently finished processing the manuscript portion of the collection, which includes seven boxes of files relating to more than 800 authors. My favorite part of these files is the correspondence, the bulk of which was written between 1960 and 2009. Many writers wrote to Locus to share news that could be included in the magazine or to quibble about inaccuracies and to suggest corrections. Overall, the correspondence creates a sense of community among a very diverse and spread-out group of writers; people wanted to know who was publishing what, who changed agents, who was involved with such-and-such scandal or lawsuit, who died, who got re-married, etc. Fans may swoon over the signatures of Octavia E. Butler, Arthur C. Clarke, Issac Asimov, and Ursula K. Le Guin (to name a few). Many of the letters are amicable, some are irate, and some are sassy and humorous. Here, one of my favorite writers, Octavia E. Butler, writes to make an important and sErious correction:
Locus Archives Document the History of Sci-Fi [David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library/Duke University]
Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library Acquires Locus Science Fiction Foundation, Publisher of Locus [Gary Price/Infodocket]
Ottawa! I'll be at the Writers Festival this Saturday night (then Berlin for Re:publica and Houston for Comicpalooza!)
This Saturday, May 4, at 7:30PM, I'll be presenting at the Ottawa Writers Festival, talking about my novel Radicalized and how it ties into surveillance, monopoly, refugees, climate change, racism and oligarchy -- all the good stuff!
From there, I'm heading to Berlin's Re:publica Festival, to give a keynote entitled "It's monopolies, not surveillance," on May 7 at 6:45PM on the main stage. I'm also doing an AMA about the EU Copyright Directive earlier that day, at 12:30PM in the International Space.
Finally, I'm heading to Houston for Comicpalooza, where I'll be on a panel about copyright on May 10 at 12:30PM; presenting a keynote talk on May 11 at 12PM; and then another copyright panel on May 12 at 10:30AM.
I hope to see you!
The Intercept's top security expert reviews Helm, a standalone home email server that keeps your comms out of Big Tech's data-centers
Last October, a startup called Helm announced a $500, plug-and-play home email server that was designed to be a secure, decentralized, privacy-oriented alternative to using one of Big Tech's email systems like Gmail, an option that was potentially even more robust than using email from a privacy-oriented provider like Riseup or Protonmail because your metadata would not be stored anywhere except in your home.
Micah Lee is a computer security engineer who was formerly a staff technologist at EFF; now he works at The Intercept. For several months, he's been hosting his personal email on a Helm device in his living room. He's just published an excellent, in-depth review of Helm, including a preliminary security audit.
His conclusion: largely positive. Helm's biggest security gap is the lack of an intrusion detection system that can warn you if someone is trying to hack it (this is in the works); but it has a "proximity-based authentication" setup that makes it much harder to phish an account (it also means that any time you set up a new account or a new mobile device to manage an existing account, you have to be within Bluetooth range of your Helm device, which might be a problem if your phone breaks while you're traveling).
The service itself works just like you'd expect a traditional, POP-based email service to work. Using a program like Thunderbird, you fetch your email and it just shows up in your inbox. The Helm doesn't support server-side filtering (a feature that power-users who already run their own mail-servers might miss), but it otherwise functionally identical to a managed, data-center-based mail server, except that it lives in your house. Helm provides DNS and other back-end services, and even includes a domain with the hardware (you can also use an existing domain).
I don't think I'll be getting a Helm, but only because I have a better "self-hosted" solution that most people don't have access to (Ken Snider, Boing Boing's amazing sysadmin, hosts my mail for me on a server he personally manages). If I didn't have access to this kind of one-off, non-scaleable solution, I'd definitely be willing to pay $100/year to get email from Helm, especially in light of Micah's positive review.
I believe that Helm’s technical infrastructure is well-engineered from a security prospective. It uses best practices (I go into greater detail in the “under the hood” section below), I don’t see any obvious flaws, and, though I haven’t made a thorough comparison, it appears to offer similar security as most small, well-run email providers. Basically, the only attackers who can get in are those armed with expensive zero-day exploits — exploits that rely on bugs that the software-makers themselves don’t even know exist and thus have not been able to release security updates for. An attacker would need to find a zero day for software Helm is known to run, like Dovecot, the open-source email server. The vast majority of attackers will remain locked out.
That said, there are some security tradeoffs involved with using Helm and some areas in which the system’s security could be improved.
If someone does manage to hack your Helm, you probably won’t notice, unfortunately. Sreenivas told me that Helm doesn’t have an intrusion detection system at this time. “We plan to summarize failed attempts in a weekly digest email,” he told me, “but alerting on actual intrusion is something we haven’t defined yet.”
Avoid Surveillance with Helm, a Home Server Anyone Can Use to Keep Emails Truly Private [Micah Lee/The Intercept]
Watch famed Spinal Tap play with Elvis Costello
Not the best quality recording of two longtime favorites, but satisfying nonetheless.
Securepairs.org will send debullshitifying security researchers to Right to Repair hearings to fight industry FUD
Dozens of Right to Repair bills were introduced across the USA last year, only to be defeated by hardcore lobbying led by Apple and backed by a rogue's gallery of giant manufacturers of every description; one of the most effective anti-repair tactics is to spread FUD about the supposed security risks of independent repairs.
Enter Securerepairs.org, a new nonprofit founded by Paul Roberts, whose experts (including "Harvard University’s Bruce Schneier, bug bounty expert Katie Moussouris, and ACLU technologist Jon Callas") will attend Right to Repair hearings to counter this industry bullshit and explain how "Fixable stuff is secure stuff."
Securepairs.org believes instead in the notion that there’s no such thing as security through obscurity; a robust system will still be secure even if people know how it works. Releasing repair manuals and spare parts shouldn’t undermine an already sound smartphone. The group even takes the idea one step further, arguing that right to repair laws would make devices more safe, by allowing consumers to quickly replace failing parts or update buggy software. For example, John Deere tractors can often only be updated by licensed technicians. Farmers who can't afford to wait have resorted to hacking into their tractors with black market firmware, a far less safe option than, say, using diagnostic tools John Deere could release itself.
Security Experts Unite Over the Right to Repair [Louise Matsakis/Wired]
Most US eighth graders have taken apart a gadget to fix it or see how it works
From the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress: "In 2018, fifty-three percent of eighth-grade students reported that they believed they could perform a variety of technology- and engineering-related tasks such as taking something apart to fix it or see how it works."
The platforms suck at content moderation and demanding they do more won't make them better at it -- but there ARE concrete ways to improve moderation
Concentration in the tech sector has left us with just a few gigantic online platforms, and they have turned into playgrounds for some of the worst people on earth: Nazis, misogynists, grifters, ultranationalists, trolls, genocidal mobs and more. The platforms are so big and their moderation policies are so screwed up, and their use of "engagement" algorithms to increase pageviews, that it's making many of us choose between having a social life with the people we care about and being tormented by awful people. Even if you opt out of social media, you can't opt out of being terrorized by psychopathic trolls who have been poisoned by Alex Jones and the like.
The platforms have completely failed to deal with this problem, and it's getting worse. But the "solutions" that many people I agree with on other issues are likely to make things worse, not better. Specifically, the platforms' inability to moderate bad speech will not be improved by making them do more of it -- it'll just make them more indiscriminate.
Remember, before the platforms knocked Alex Jones offline, they took down "Moroccan atheists, trans models, drag performers, indigenous women" and many others whose speech threatened and discomfited the rich and powerful, who were able to use the platforms' moderation policies to deny their adversaries access to online organizing and communications tools.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Jillian C York (an expert on moderation policies) and Corynne McSherry (EFF's legal director) have written the best article on content moderation I've read to date, in which they comprehensively identify the ways that current content moderation is broken, the ways that proposals to "fix moderation" (especially AI-based content filters) (uuuugghghghg) will make it worse, and then, finally, a set of proposals for genuinely improving moderation -- without sacrificing the speech and organizing capacity of marginalized and threatened people.
Advocates, companies, policymakers, and users have a choice: try to prop up and reinforce a broken system—or remake it. If we choose the latter, which we should, here are some preliminary recommendations:
- Censorship must be rare and well-justified, particularly by tech giants. At a minimum, that means (1) Before banning a category of speech, policymakers and companies must explain what makes that category so exceptional, and the rules to define its boundaries must be clear and predictable. Any restrictions on speech should be both necessary and proportionate. Emergency takedowns, such as those that followed the recent attack in New Zealand, must be well-defined and reserved for true emergencies. And (2) when content is flagged as violating community standards, absent exigent circumstances companies must notify the user and give them an opportunity to appeal before the content is taken down. If they choose to appeal, the content should stay up until the question is resolved. But (3) smaller platforms dedicated to serving specific communities may want to take a more aggressive approach. That’s fine, as long as Internet users have a range of meaningful options with which to engage.
- Consistency. Companies should align their policies with human rights norms. In a paper published last year, David Kaye—the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression—recommends that companies adopt policies that allow users to “develop opinions, express themselves freely and access information of all kinds in a manner consistent with human rights law.” We agree, and we’re joined in that opinion by a growing coalition of civil liberties and human rights organizations.
- Tools. Not everyone will be happy with every type of content, so users should be provided with more individualized tools to have control over what they see. For example, rather than banning consensual adult nudity outright, a platform could allow users to turn on or off the option to see it in their settings. Users could also have the option to share their settings with their community to apply to their own feeds.
- Evidence-based policymaking. Policymakers should tread carefully when operating without facts, and not fall victim to political pressure. For example, while we know that disinformation spreads rapidly on social media, many of the policies created by companies in the wake of pressure appear to have had little effect. Companies should work with researchers and experts to respond more appropriately to issues.
Recognizing that something needs to be done is easy. Looking to AI to help do that thing is also easy. Actually doing content moderation well is very, very difficult, and you should be suspicious of any claim to the contrary.
Content Moderation is Broken. Let Us Count the Ways. [Jillian C York and Corynne McSherry/EFF Deeplinks]
Virginia judge rules automated license plate data collection by police is illegal
A Virginia state judge ruled earlier this month that automated license plate data collection by police qualified as protected “personal information," and was illegal, because it included the following elements all combined: The license plate number, images of the vehicle and license plate and immediate surroundings, plus GPS location and time and date.
The value of multiple types of data that can be interpolated is greater than one form alone.
Here is the court's ruling [PDF Link].
EFF has done tons of work on this issue, and the EFF's Dave Maass wrote a great technology primer you should read if you're interested. Also, don't miss EFF's street-level surveillance FAQ.
From PrivacySOS:
The lawsuit dates back to 2015. That year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia sued the Fairfax County Police Department on behalf of Harrison Neal. Through a public records request, Neal discovered that the Fairfax police department had collected data on his whereabouts using license plate readers. The police collected and maintained these records on Neal—and millions of other Virginians—even though they never suspected him of involvement in any criminal activity. The ACLU filed suit representing Neal, arguing that the police department’s collection and retention of information on his whereabouts for nearly a year violated Virginia’s Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act, a state law controlling how government agencies in Virginia are allowed to collect, store, and share personal information about residents.
License plate readers are surveillance devices mounted on police vehicles or stationary objects like light poles or bridges. The cameras read and record every license plate that comes into their field of vision—as many as 3,600 plates per minute, or 216,000 an hour. Each time the cameras capture a license plate, they create a file containing an image of the car, the license plate number, and the time, date, and location where the surveillance occurred.
The ACLU has been sounding the alarm about the use of ALPRs all over the country since 2012. While some states have regulated their use, limiting the time police departments can retain non-derogatory information, most police departments use the systems to conduct both active and passive surveillance—that is, to actively search for cars connected to suspected criminal activity, and to collect and retain for long periods information about drivers who are not suspected of any crimes.
In this ACLU lawsuit in Virginia, the key question was whether the collection and storage of Neal’s license plate data without suspicion of any criminal activity was legal under Virginia state law. To determine if the surveillance violated that law, the ACLU had to prove two things. First, the ACLU had to demonstrate that the state data protection law applied to the police department’s collection of license plate reader data—specifically, that the records constituted personal information and that the license plate reader record keeping system was an information system as defined under the state law. Second, provided the law applied, the ACLU had to prove that the police department’s passive surveillance was not exempt from the law and that therefore the creation of the database violated it. To do that, the ACLU argued that this type of surveillance violated the law’s provision requiring a clear and established need to collect information.
Here's a good primer on ALPRs from the ACLU [PDF Link]
[via Eileen Clancy & onekade, Photo by Mike Katz-Lacabe (CC BY) via EFf.org.]
Vodaphone sources claim Huawei created a "backdoor" for its home routers and network switching equipment and then lied about removing it
Vodaphone discovered that the home routers that Huawei provided for its Italian residential broadband business had a "backdoor" -- an open telnet interface that could allow attackers to take over the router and surveil the user's network -- and after they complained to Huawei about it, Huawei released an update that they claimed removed the interface, but that this was a lie.
Bloomberg's Daniele Lepido broke the story, and it's a little confusing. The term "backdoor" implies that Huawei left an interface open so that it could do something nefarious, like conducting surveillance on Vodaphone's customers, but Huawei's statements about the interface imply that it was a sloppy mistake -- they say that the telnet interface was used as part of the setup and configuration process, and that they couldn't remove it altogether without making it hard (or maybe impossible?) to set up their routers.
If Huawei is to be believed, then they are guilty of terrible security practices (that's a really stupid way to design a router), but not necessarily guilty of a "backdoor" in the customary sense of the word. But as one expert quoted by Bloomberg notes, if you were going to design a deliberate backdoor, you'd be smart to disguise it as a programming error.
Much more damning (and somewhat buried in the Bloomberg reporting) is the presence of telnet interfaces in "optical service nodes" (which are used for managing fiber optic traffic) and "broadband network gateways" (which bridge between customer equipment like home routers and internet backbones). A criminal or state actor who compromised these systems could conduct mass surveillance, as opposed to merely spying on (or compromising the devices of) a single household.
Vodaphone told Bloomberg that it discovered these defects (or backdoors, or whatever) in 2011 and 2012, and that Huawei fixed them. But unnamed Vodaphone sources told Bloomberg that this is a lie: when Vodaphone checked to verify whether Huawei had patched its equipment, they discovered that it was still vulnerable.
Vodaphone has recently taken up a vigorous defense of Huawei, whose equipment will be used in Vodaphone's UK 5G rollout. Bloomberg's sources said that Vodaphone's defense of Huawei was motivated by cost-savings, because Huawei is cheaper than its competitors.
Vodafone managers had concerns with the security of the routers almost right away. They were the topic of an internal presentation from October 2009 that pointed to 26 open bugs in the routers, six identified as “critical” and nine as “major.” Vodafone said in the report that Huawei would need to remove or inhibit a so-called telnet service—a protocol used to control devices remotely—that the carrier said was a backdoor giving Huawei access to sensitive data.
In January 2011, Vodafone Italy started a deeper probe of the routers, according to an April report from the year. Security testing by an independent contractor identified the telnet backdoor as the greatest concern, posing risks including giving unauthorized access to Vodafone’s broader Wide Area Network (WAN is a network that spans a large footprint). Vodafone noted that it’s an industry practice by some router manufacturers to use a telnet service to manage their equipment, but the company said it didn’t allow this.
The document chronicles a two-month period during which Vodafone’s Italian unit discovered the telnet service, demanded its removal by Huawei and received assurances from the supplier that the problem was fixed. After further testing, Vodafone found that the telnet service could still be launched.
Vodafone said Huawei then refused to fully remove the backdoor, citing a manufacturing requirement. Huawei said it needed the telnet service to configure device information and conduct tests including on wifi, and offered to disable the service after taking those steps, according to the document.
Vodafone Found Hidden Backdoors in Huawei Equipment [Daniele Lepido/Bloomberg]
(Image: Mystica)
The best evidence for extraterrestrials may be their massive engineering projects
The classic approach to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is to scan the skies for radio transmissions from intelligent civilizations. While we definitely won't hear anything if we don't listen, SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak urges us to also keep our eyes (and sensors) peeled for another kind of alien technosignature: alien megastructures, "massive engineering works that an advanced society has constructed somewhere in space." We haven't found one yet but the possibility made headlines several years ago when a team of astronomers led by Tabetha Boyajian described a star that periodically dims in a very odd way. Shostak writes:
One explanation was that the star was surrounded by a Dyson sphere. The idea, proposed years ago by physicist Freeman Dyson, is that really advanced aliens would construct a gargantuan, spherical swarm of solar panels in orbit beyond their own planet — sort of the way you might cup your hands around a candle to collect the heat. The swarm would gather enough starlight to energize the aliens’ souped-up lifestyles, and could sometimes get in the way of light from the star, causing it to intermittently dim as seen from afar.
That explanation for Tabby’s star seems less likely today. Astronomical measurements show that it gets redder when it dims, suggesting that it’s surrounded by naturally produced dust, not a gargantuan group of light collectors.
But it’s reasonable to believe that Dyson spheres exist somewhere. In the past, astronomers looked for clues to such massive engineering projects by trawling star catalogs for systems that show an excess of infrared light — produced by the warm backside of the panels. Another approach is to comb through data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope to find stars whose light is fainter than expected, simply because their shine is partially, and constantly, blocked by a bunch of panels.
"Why alien 'megastructures' may hold key to making contact with extraterrestrials"
image: "An illustration of a relativly simple arrangement of multiple Dyson rings in a more complex form of the Dyson swarm." (CC BY 2.5)
Venezuela military coup: Guns fired at Maduro protesters, Internet blocked, Guaidó with soldiers claims ‘final phase’
Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader in Venezuela who is supported by the Trump administration, published a video message online on April 30 that calls for a military-backed challenge to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
#UPDATE Venezuela's government has vowed to put down what it called an "attempted coup" as opposition leader and self-proclaimed acting president Juan #Guaido said troops had joined his campaign to oust President Nicolas #Maduro https://t.co/Q3nixWv5mU pic.twitter.com/ZNvX27s7Dw
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 30, 2019
NetBlocks, an organization that tracks connectivity and electricity in Venezuela, tweeted this morning that “multiple internet services” are currently being “restricted.”
Update: YouTube, Bing, Google and Android services are currently restricted in #Venezuela, as public come out on streets following #OperaciónLibertad calls #KeepItOn #30Abr
https://t.co/9qTM20Ps62 pic.twitter.com/Ctn3FajBay
— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) April 30, 2019
VPN use is highly encouraged for those in Venezuela.
Update: VPN services currently remain effective as a means to access social media in #Venezuela, amid severe ongoing platform disruptions #KeepItOn #30Abr
— NetBlocks.org (@netblocks) April 30, 2019
Vice President Mike Pence tweeted “vayan con Dios,” which probably means the U.S. is itching to get our military involved.
Anyone recall exactly what Russia's foreign policy goals are in Venezuela?
Be a good time to brush up on that.
I would imagine Trump's response will be aligned with whatever Putin needs.
The Army has been using rubber bullets and tear gas until now, for the most part, when shooting at protesters. Today they are using live ammunition.
Right now: Gunfire on the streets of Caracas Venezuela as members of the military supporting opposition leader Juan Guaido battle those backing President Nicolas Maduro. An attempted coup underway. pic.twitter.com/XYb12Kl2YW
— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) April 30, 2019
Venezuela's Maduro announced that he has spoken with military leaders and 'they have shown me total loyalty'
#UPDATE Venezuela's government has vowed to put down what it called an "attempted coup" as opposition leader and self-proclaimed acting president Juan #Guaido said troops had joined his campaign to oust President Nicolas #Maduro https://t.co/Q3nixWv5mU pic.twitter.com/ZNvX27s7Dw
— AFP news agency (@AFP) April 30, 2019
Mariana Zuñiga and Anthony Faiola in the Washington Post, with live updates:
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó appeared Tuesday with troops at a Caracas military base to announce a “final phase” to remove President Nicolás Maduro from office. This is what we know:
● Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton expressed U.S. support for the opposition.
● Guaidó urged supporters to take to the streets for “nonviolent” action, and claimed to have a list of names of military officials who support him.
● Maduro’s government denounced a “coup” attempt by a “reduced group of military officials,” called on supporters to surround the presidential palace and warned of “counterattack.”
● The military presence in Caracas increased, and tear gas was fired outside La Carlota military base.
● “Multiple Internet services” are being “restricted,” according to a monitoring service.
EN VIVO: @jguaido llama a venezolanos a salir a las calles tras liberar a @leopoldolopez #30Abr #OperacionLibertad Más información
https://t.co/Uuhe5LK4Jl https://t.co/tH71aiEWC2
— Noticias Telemundo (@TelemundoNews) April 30, 2019
#Venezuela: Live pictures from Caracas as authorities say they are "putting down a small coup attempt", apparently led by opposition leader Juan Guaidóhttps://t.co/tVg9QVBmHw pic.twitter.com/5G1KC1k7XH
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 30, 2019
Tear gas fired at Venezuela's Guaido while gathered with men in military uniform https://t.co/RpOULpozT5 pic.twitter.com/MsJ9P0abUT
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 30, 2019
Indian Army mountaineers find Yeti footprints
The Indian Army tweeted photos of Yeti footprints spotted by its team of mountaineers near Makalu Base Camp between Nepal and Tibet. Based on the image, this particular Yeti has only one foot. No word yet on whether the Indian Army is, um, joking.
The first Indian Army mountaineering expedition to Makalu in the Mahalangur Himalayas kicked off last month.
(CNN)
For the first time, an #IndianArmy Moutaineering Expedition Team has sited Mysterious Footprints of mythical beast 'Yeti' measuring 32x15 inches close to Makalu Base Camp on 09 April 2019. This elusive snowman has only been sighted at Makalu-Barun National Park in the past. pic.twitter.com/AMD4MYIgV7
— ADG PI - INDIAN ARMY (@adgpi) April 29, 2019
Talking Radicalized with the LA Public Library: Trump derangement syndrome, engagement algorithms, and novellas as checked luggage
The LA Public Library's Daryl M interviewed me about my new book, Radicalized, specifically, about how my Trump anxiety (created, in part, by the platforms' relentless use of "engagement" tools to nonconsensually eyeball-fuck me with Trump headlines) led to the book's germination, as well as the specific inspirations for each of the four novellas, and the delights of working in novella form.
What was your inspiration for Radicalized as a collection?
I call this my "Trump derangement syndrome therapy book." I didn't intend to write ANY of these—they got blurted out while I was working on another book—the third Little Brother book, working title Crypto Wars, which I turned in just before Xmas.
We've spent 2+ years having Trump headlines nonconsensually crammed into our eyeballs by a media ecosystem dominated by "engagement" metrics—meaning that the longer you hang in there, the bigger the bonuses of the execs, engineers and designers behind the product. That's why Google added "trending searches" to the search bar in Android. No one EVER went to a search bar to find out what other people are searching for. People search to find out the answers to specific questions! But if a Google engineer can hijack your attempt to find out what's in an unfamiliar sauce on a restaurant menu by showing you a list reading "imminent nuclear armageddon/more kids in cages/trump supports torture" then you might actually do SEVERAL searches instead of the one you set out to do. Nevermind that this means dinner is ruined—the engineer who came up with that gimmick will get a great bonus for increasing "engagement" with their product.
The upshot of this is a kind of narrative incoherence. The headlines come so fast and furious that it feels like we're being buffeted, and there's no way to make sense of them.
When that happens, my writerly instinct is to make narratives by any means possible. That's where these stories came from, as best as I can work out.
Why did you choose to tell the stories in Radicalized as novellas rather than novels?
Novels are mysterious oceans with unknown territory on the other side. You never know where the currents and the winds will take you until you've finished the crossing. Novellas are the largest, most complex stories that can be held in your head all at once, something that can be entirely premeditated instead of something you discover.
Or put another way: a short story is like traveling with a carry-on bag, it can only contain your essentials. A novel is like hiring movers to load your whole life into a shipping container. A novella is like checking a bag or two, with enough room for some optional comfort items you're not sure you'll need but which you'll be glad to have.
Interview With an Author: Cory Doctorow [Daryl M/Los Angeles Public Library]
Lorem Ipsum but for images
David Marby & Nijiko Yonskai's Lorem Picsum is an online service that generates placeholder images. All you have to do is write image URLs like so — https://picsum.photos/400/300 — with the folder names defining the image dimensions.
Part of the utility of lorem ipsum, however, is that the text consists of real words and sentences, but jumbled up. This means it has the dimensions of real text, but no meaning to distract the typesetter or designer from its form. Latin having similar dimensions to English, lorem ipsum has only improved for this purpose with the decline of Latin.
It seems to me, then, that the garbled reality of deep-dream images is more appropriate than the meaningful stock photos used here. Perhaps I'm just encouraging the world to be more completely filled with nightmares? Some of these AI-mediated works are quite lovely.
Serpent profiteers: how a summer camp snakebite turned into a $142,938 medical bill
Last July, a nine year old child named Oakley Yoder got bitten on the toe by a venomous snake while at summer camp in Jackson Falls, Illinois: the initial bill for her treatment came out to $142,938.
A big chunk of that was for the air ambulance: $55,577.64. But the largest item on the bill was $67,957 for four vials of antivenin from the UK pharmaceutical monopolist BTG Plc, whose product, Crofab, retails for $3,198 in the USA (a Mexican rival that cannot be legally imported to the USA costs $200/dose).
The St. Vincent Evansville hospital marked up the antivenin (already marked up by 16,000%, from $200 to $3,198) to $16,989.25, a further 500% -- that's 85 times the price that Yoder and her insurer would have paid in Mexico.
The family's insurer, IU Health Plans, negotiated the overall price down to $107,863.33, and a supplemental insurance plan that the family took out for summer camp covered $7,286.34 in additional costs. The family didn't have to pay anything (but every insured person will end up paying a little more in future premiums to ensure that IU and its competitors remain wildly profitable).
The FDA has since approved a different Mexican antivenin product called Anavip that will retail for $1,220; the product's entry to the US market was delayed by six years due to a patent claim by monopolist BTG Plc whose settlement has contributed to Anavip's high price, which now includes a royalty paid to BTG for every vial sold, until BTG's patent expires in 2028.
There is momentum growing for potential government action on drug prices. In states and in Congress, different proposals have been floated, which include allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, tying the U.S. price of expensive drugs to the average price in other developed countries, and allowing the government to inject competition into a market when there is none — such as speeding generic drug approvals or allowing for imports from other countries.
Summer Bummer: A Young Camper's $142,938 Snakebite [Shots/All Things Considered]
(via Naked Capitalism)
(Image: St Vincent Evansville/Facebook)
Big Tech's addiction to illegal, overreaching NDAs protects wage discrimination, sexual harassment, and other evils by "terrorizing" employees
NDAs were once used exclusively to protect bona fide trade secrets, but today's Big Tech companies force new hires to sign far-ranging NDAs that exceed the law in many ways (for example, by banning employees from discussing illegal workplace conditions), as a means of "terrorizing" employees into keeping their mouths shut, lest they face threats from the company's high-powered lawyers.
A few companies have relaxed their NDA policies (Uber was forced to weaken its NDA to allow employees to report sexual harassment after a string of embarrassing revelations), but the majority of Big Tech firms are using NDAs that keep employees (and the public) in the dark about illegal wage-gaps (based on race or sex), sexual harassment, and dangerous workplace practices -- and to harass and intimidate ex-employees who go to work for competitors.
And of course, while Big Tech may have pioneered these tactics, they've leaked out into many other industries, and even to the White House.
The upshot is that, for now, any checks on the use of NDAs may have to come from political leaders. In the same way that state attorneys general have begun to target the misuse of noncompete agreements that limit employees when switching jobs, lawmakers theoretically could punish companies that use NDAs for anything other than protecting bona fide trade secrets.
Why You Should Be Worried About Tech's Love Affair With NDAs [Jeff John Roberts/Fortune]
(Image: Akezone)
(via Naked Capitalism)
Sonic the Hedgehog movie trailer
They've obviously refined the design since the suprisingly bad model sheet leaked. Now it is perfectly bad, launched on an orbital trajectory from the uncanny valley's curve. But perhaps that's the type of bad you've been looking for in a live-action Sonic the Hedgehog, fuzzy and naked in his Nikes.
Chase's idiotic poverty-shaming "inspirational" tweet, and Twitter users' magnificent responses thereto
Every Monday, some poor "brand ambassador" at Chase has to post a "Monday motivation" tweet aimed at convincing people that one of America's largest, most rapacious banks is actually a cuddly, responsible business whose $12 billion bailout from Uncle Sam was perfectly justifiable and sure to be put to excellent use.
These are uniformly terrible, but they hit a new low yesterday with a since-deleted tweet that took the form of a dialog between "You" and "Bank account" in which "You" failed to grasp that your buying coffee in coffee shops, eating out, and taking taxis are why your balance is so low, to the enormous frustration of poor old "Bank account."
But of course, this doesn't explain how Chase's balance reached $12,000,000,000 in the red (perhaps they ate a lot of takeout?), nor does it take account of factors like wage stagnation, increasing inequality, skyrocketing rents, unsustainable student debt, and other structural factors that have put most Americans just one missed paycheck or unexpected hospitalization away from real financial hardship.
Luckily, Twitter's users were there to point this out to Chase in a series of brutal comebacks, from adding an additional party to the dialogue ("Bank: Charges ridiculous overdraft fees if you transfer one minute late. -$35.00"), to intensely personal responses ("When I was a high school student student you charged me a total of 700$ in fees in one year") to the political ("This is definitely motivating me...To seize the means of production").
My favorite came from Anand Giridharadas (previously): "This is the ideology of our age captured in a single tweet. Systemic problems recast as individual problems. Corporate greed recast as personal failure. A bank claiming to 'motivate' its customers by mocking them for structural economic problems the bank is complicit in causing."
Chase bank tried to be relatable on Twitter and got absolutely dunked on [Sage Anderson/Mashable]
(via Naked Capitalism)
The most dangerous amusement park in US history
Opened in Vernon, New Jersey's in 1978, Action Park's biggest claim to fame was the number of injuries experienced by visitors to the amusement and water park. Apparently during Action Park's heyday, between 5 and 10 guests ended up in the emergency room every weekend. It was nicknamed "Traction Park," "Accident Park," and, my favorite, "Class Action Park." Lawsuits finally shut down Action Park in 1996.
Learn more at Action Park's extensive Wikipedia page.
Babby is fully formed
Mark Lisseman asks: "Is that diagram… accurate??"
I looked into it and it turns out that the book is called The Story of Life and is by chris (simpsons artist). I've just ordered a copy.
Clear intent is but a small mercy.
Fortnite champions don't even like the game anymore
Having won the Fortnite nationals, co-champion Jack Stuttard is asked what's next: another season? More tournaments? The online circuit?
Honestly, we don't like the game that much any more. Not gonna lie. We'll see what happens.
The host smiles and turns to co-champion Ibrahim Diaz and literally requests "a better answer here."
Well, we've decided we don't want to play competitive Fortnite, so we're going to move onto different games, do different stuff.
Imagine being at the point where competition and compulsion has taken you to the point where you could have fun for a living, but instead, with cameras and lights on you, you decline and criticize the creators over game balance issues. Quite the movie moment!
Get a complete master class in coding for under $30
To an outsider, the world of computer programming can seem like it's rotating around the Tower of Babel at times. There are so many different languages, each one tailored to a different set of functionalities. You can be fluent at Javascript, but still won't be able to make heads or tails of Python. The problem is, your boss likely won't care about the difference. They'll just want the job to get done.
That's why the best education for an aspiring coder is a broad one. And from what we've seen, the Complete Learn to Code Master Class Bonus Bundle is the broadest.
We're talking 11 different courses covering the most essential computer languages in use today. Let's walk you through the platforms it teaches, and how you can use them:
- Google Go, also known as Golang. A layered language that's best for developing programs for CPUs with multiple cores.
- Javascript, still one of the most widely-used web development tools out there.
- Python, a language that started life as a time-saving automation tool but has evolved into the foundation for most machine learning.
- C++, a general-purpose language that can build anything from video games to space probe guidance systems from the ground up.
- Java, a versatile language that can still run on just about any platform.
- PHP and MySQL, two essential pieces of background for anyone working in database development.
- C# 7 and .NET Core 2.0, two beginner-friendly building blocks for games and apps.
- Rust, a newcomer to the programming fold that boasts high program safety features.
- Git, a software engineering language that's crucial for syncing up efforts among developers.
- Perl, a patchwork language used for a variety of programming applications.
- Ruby, a high-level programming tool that's nonetheless easy to use by beginners.
That's 13 different languages, all taught with an accessible approach that allows anyone to pick it up. After tackling each course, you'll get documents to certify your completion - all priceless highlights to any IT or programming resume.
All eleven courses in the Complete Learn to Code Master Class Bonus Bundle are $29, a drop from the previous sale price of $59.
Drones that save power by hanging like bats and perching like birds
New drone designs enable small UAVs to conserve battery life by taking breaks in unusual locations as opposed to landing back on the ground. For example, engineers from Yale University and their colleagues demonstrated novel landing gear for drones to perch like birds or hang like a bat. From Smithsonian:
“We have a few different perching strategies,” says Yale researcher Kaiyu Hang, lead author of a study recently published in Science Robotics. “Where it is totally perched, where it is grasping around something, like a bat, we can stop all the rotors and the energy consumption would become zero.”
Another option is what Hang calls “resting.” It involves using a landing device that enables a drone to balance on the edge of a surface, such as a box or a ledge. In that position, it would be able to shut down two of its four rotors, cutting consumption roughly in half. Another alternative makes it possible for a drone to sit on top of a small surface, such as a pole, a tactic that cuts energy use by about 70 percent, according to Hang.
"These Drones Can Perch and Dangle Like Birds and Bats" (Smithsonian)
"Perching and resting—A paradigm for UAV maneuvering with modularized landing gears" (Science)
image above: Kaiyu Hang/Yale University
Pope urges barbers and hair stylists not to gossip
More than 200 Italian barbers and hair stylists visited the Vatican yesterday where they received a a solemn word of warning from Pope Francis:
"Avoid falling into the temptation of gossip that is easily associated with your work," he said, and do your job "with Christian style, treating clients with gentleness and courtesy, offering them always a good word and encouragement."
Francis also introduced the hairdressers to their patron saint St. Martin de Porres (d. 1639) who according to Catholic.org is the "patron of Mixed Race, Barbers, Public Health Workers, (and) Innkeepers."
(Reuters)
Monday 29 April 2019
Capybara enjoys meditating in the bath
Wise little capybara.
Not entirely sure what's going on in this video as I do not speak Japanese, but the title is:
Capybara @ Izu Shaboten Animal Park [open-air bath of ancestral capybara] to put mandarin orange on head
And to be honest, that is enough for me.
I aspire to achieve the apparent serenity this capybara exudes, even when they haz a little orange on their head.
Cow enjoys being petted like a dog
Want to boop that beef snoot so bad.
How to: make a hackintosh
Ernie Smith has produced a spectacularly complete guide to making a "hackintosh" -- that is, a Mac OS computer running on PC hardware, giving users the option of more RAM, different screens and keyboards, and many other axes of freedom otherwise denied to Mac OS users. Apple doesn't make it easy, but the community's extensive work has put the seemingly impossible within your grasp.
Jimmy Fallon played a video game on air, meaning that streaming your own game gets you taken down as a pirate, thanks to NBC
NBC (and the other broadcasters) provides copies of its shows to Youtube's Content ID filter, which is supposed to protect copyright by blocking uploads of videos that match ones in its database of claimed videos. That means that if you own the copyright to something that is aired on NBC, any subsequent attempts by you or your fans to upload your work will be blocked as copyright infringements, and could cost you your Youtube account.
The latest casualty of this is the video game Beat Saber. Jimmy Fallon played part of one of Beat Saber's levels, and so no one else cold upload their own gameplay of that level to Youtube without being accused of copyright infringement and blocked. After a lot of fast work by Beat Saber, they managed to get the ban lifted.
The EU just passed a new Copyright Directive that mandates Content ID-style filters for all kinds of expressive speech (video, audio, text, images, code, etc) for every service.
Beat Saber Stream Blocked by Jimmy Fallon Show [Jimster71/Reddit]
The World’s Smallest Post Service to open a magical brick-and-mortar experience in Oakland
After ten years of making and sending custom tiny mail for people via her online transcription service, Postmaster/artist Lea Redmond is dreaming big. She is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter to bring a magical brick-and-mortar World’s Smallest Post Service to a vintage storefront in downtown Oakland. Yes, you'll be able to experience the joy of tiny mail in person!
The installation will feature an early 1900s oak post office counter (which she scored off of Craigslist), a bank of brass eagle P.O. boxes, and other delights such as dioramas and letter-writing nights. Back her Kickstarter project to send tiny mail and to get some gorgeous commemorative faux postage stamp sheets by Oakland artist Michael Wertz (shown above).
The World’s Smallest Post Service started out as a quirky roaming postal office around the SF Bay Area, and since then Lea and her postal pals have crafted and sent tens of thousands of tiny letters and packages to loved ones all over the world. In addition to single custom tiny letters and packages, they offer DIY tiny mail stationery kits, tiny serial stories called “Keep Me Posted,” secret admirer Valentine’s chocolates, and other charming wee things.
I'm a huge fan!
(RED)
Good deal on Crest teeth-whitening strips
As a person who drinks copious amounts of tea and coffee, I can attest to the efficacy of these teeth-whitening strips. You just attach the tape-like strips to your upper and lower teeth and wear them for an hour (I usually forget I have them on because I'm so engrossed in my work). I noticed a big difference after the first day (the full course runs seven days).
A story of revenge: "How I beat an online course scammer"
Ryan Kulp teaches an online course that costs $2,100. Someone paid for the course, copied all the materials and offered them for sale on his own website, then demanded that Kulp refund the $2,100 he gave Kulp to get access to the materials. Kulp didn't take kindly to this so he plotted his revenge. He wrote this article about what transpired.
Microsoft thinks Minecraft's creator is a creeper
Microsoft bought Minecraft in 2014 from Marcus “Notch” Persson for $2.5 billion, but it has no plans to invite the creator to participate in the game's 10-year anniversary festivities.
A spokesperson for Microsoft told Variety, “His comments and opinions do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang and are not representative of Minecraft."
Persson, once an involved member of the video game development community, has increasingly ostracized himself with his Twitter comments, including transphobic statements and comments about a “heterosexual pride day,” and that “it’s ok to be white.”
Persson has about 3.7 million followers on Twitter. An update to the game last month removed loading screen text on Minecraft that referenced Persson. Microsoft didn’t comment about the decision to remove the reference last month.
Notch, who purchased a swell bachelor pad in Los Angeles for $70 million after Micrsoft cut him a check, no longer works on Minecraft, but keeps himself busy posting on Twitter.
What a fucking cunt
— notch (@notch) June 12, 2017
And you're a cunt.
— notch (@notch) June 29, 2017
Celebrating fucking body dysphoria.
— notch (@notch) March 10, 2019
High-IQ individuals are over-represented in positions of power, for benign reasons.
Some populations have higher IQ on average, for benign reasons.Not being allowed to discuss this makes people distrust and come up with explanations like nepotism.
— notch (@notch) December 6, 2018
(protip: believing in race based privilege needing to be checked fits the literal definition of racism)
— notch (@notch) November 30, 2017
It's ok to be white.
— notch (@notch) November 30, 2017
(Above two tweets was deleted)
Images: Notch (by Official GDC - 16-20_42_56-01-7D2_0739, CC BY 2.0, Link) / Creeper costume (Amazon)
YouTube's algorithm overwhelmingly recommended Russia Today's video about the Mueller report
YouTube's recommendation algorithm decided that the Russian government-funded Russia Today channel had the best analysis of the Mueller report, according to an analysis by Guillaume Chaslot.
The video had only 50,000 views, yet YouTube's algorithm overwhelmingly favored it over hundreds of other much more popular videos produced by independent news organizations.
<div id="tttt_1121603845438590978" data-option="1"><strong><a href="https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1121603845438590978.html">Thread by @gchaslot: "THREAD One week after the release of the Mueller report, which analysis of it did YouTube recommend from the most channels among the 1000+ c […]"</a></strong></div><script async src="https://threadreaderapp.com/embed/1121603845438590978.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Image: @gchaslot/Twitter
Boba and Jango Fett's LEGO Slave I
I've got to have this LEGO version of Slave I, the instantly recognizable spaceship flown by infamous bounty hunter Jango, and his clone-son Boba, Fett.
The set also comes with Han, Leia and some other character minifigs.
I am certain this project will soon adorn one of my bookshelves.
LEGO Star Wars Slave I – 20th Anniversary Edition 75243 Building Kit via Amazon
Watch this motorcycle thief evade the fuzz
This is some artful cop dodgery. The low-key curb sit is a perfect touch.
(r/videos)
Tour of a cool 300 square foot apartment in Melbourne
Architect Douglas Wan transformed a small Melbourne apartment (built in the 1950s as housing for nurses) into a versatile living space. He used plywood to divide the 300 square foot space into different living areas.
5G wireless may mess up weather forecasts
While 5G mobile networks promise to provide tremendous wireless speeds with low latency, they may also make it more difficult for meteorologists to provide weather forecasts. That's because 5G's neighboring frequencies are used by satellites that detect water vapor in the atmosphere, data that informs weather models used by meteorologists. From Nature:
Astronomers, meteorologists and other scientists have long worked to share the spectrum with other users, sometimes shifting to different frequencies to prevent conflicts. But “this is the first time we’ve seen a threat to what I’d call the crown jewels of our frequencies — the ones that we absolutely must defend come what may”, says Stephen English, a meteorologist at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, UK.
They include the 23.8-gigahertz frequency, at which water vapour in the atmosphere emits a faint signal. Satellites, such as the European MetOp probes, monitor energy radiating from Earth at this frequency to assess humidity in the atmosphere below — measurements that can be taken during the day or at night, even if clouds are present. Forecasters feed these data into models to predict how storms and other weather systems will develop in the coming hours and days.
But a 5G station transmitting at nearly the same frequency will produce a signal that looks much like that of water vapour. “We wouldn’t know that that signal is not completely natural,” says Gerth.
Uber apologizes for tweeting racial slur
There's a certain elegance to the troll here. Knowing that Twitter doesn't moderate racist terms of abuse, and realizing that Uber's Twitter support account is a dumbly overfamiliar auto-response bot, it was easy for someone to make it say anything they wanted it to. And what they wanted it to say was that.
Mail an old-fashioned letter, made of actual paper, via the internet
Mail A Letter...online is just like sending email, but it imprints your message onto a thin, highly portable lignin-cellulose substrate using a solution of carbon black in petroleum distillates. Then it envelops the resulting document to protect it, prints the recipient's address on that, and then apparently something else happens and it eventually arrives.
For this they want at least $1.52. Attention hackers: apparently it is possible to do all this without even using a website! You can get your own cellulose preparations and inscription chemicals. Yet it is still not free of charge to "send" the result? Some soldering skill might be required too, I haven't looked into it. (via HN)
Avengers: Endgame smashes records with $1.2bn box office
The Marvel universe blockbuster became the fastest movie to earn $1bn, reports the BBC, hitting the $1.2bn mark in five days.
In the US alone, Endgame - which stars Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man - brought in a record $350m, and also enjoyed the UK and Ireland's biggest opening ever with takings of £43.7m.
Empire's Helen O'Hara explains: "we're desperately invested in everything that happens to [the characters]."
Listen: Kmart in-store music/announcements cassette from 1989
This is the audio from a music/announcement cassette played at Kmart in October 1989. Mark Davis says, "I worked at Kmart between 1989 and 1999 and held onto them with the hopes that they would be of use some day."
Coming soon: a limited-edition, "blue light" vinyl reissue. Just kidding. I think?
Over at Archive.org, listeners have identified some of the fine tracks.
(via r/ObscureMedia)
Race AA batteries through tubes made of copper wire
As a method of testing battery output, it seems a bit elaborate, but racing AAs down coiled copper tubes looks like a lot of fun. Mr. Michal:
Duracell, Varta or Energizer, Which Will Be the Best? In this video you'll see two races between aa batteries. Infinite loop and DRAG RACE. How to make the simplest electromagnetic train in the world ? It's very easy. You only need these three parts. 1. copper wire raw 2. battery ( AAA, AA or C ) 3. and two neodymium magnets ( it must be larger in diameter than battery )
I figure as a benchmark, you'd need to immobilize the tube for comparisons to be fair? Say, if you wanted to create a whole YouTube channel dedicated exclusively to well-controlled battery races.
Man unclogs culvert drain
This man's calling is to unclog drains in public infrastructure. As you can see from this footage, he's rather good at it.
I was walking by this place and saw that the drain needed to be cleared so I had my father drive me up here the next day, this time with a pair of tall boots. I cleared the drain in about a half an hour. Those logs are heavier than you think, their waterlogged which makes them heavier than a regular log. Also the leaf debris was being held down with a lot of suction and was hard to remove. I returned today and the lake had dropped about 5 in and the Culvert was no longer raging. The water level is back to normal. Thanks for watching
Things get exciting about 4 minutes in.
Thanks to the 2008 foreclosure crisis, a Kuwaiti ponzi schemer was able to single-handedly blight cities across America
After the 2008 economic crash and the ensuing foreclosure crisis, AbdulAziz HouHou ran a ponzi scheme that bilked other Kuwaitis out of millions that were spent buying and flipping foreclosed houses across America, particularly in hard-hit rustbelt towns like Buffalo and Rochester.
HouHou -- now serving a 10-year prison sentence in Kuwait -- lured in investors with promises of worry-free, 15% returns on their money, which he said he would spend buying up distressed properties and then renting out to desperate people who would tolerate minimal maintenance while paying high rents.
Apparently that didn't work out -- or perhaps HouHou never intended it to work out -- and instead, HouHou bought houses and left them vacant, boarded up, not paying taxes on them. Sometimes he sold the same house to multiple investors. Sometimes he didn't even own the houses he was selling.
The scam went on for years, thanks to HouHou's ponzi tactic of paying existing investors out of the money coming in from new ones, guaranteeing a sterling reputation in Kuwait.
Even before the scam was revealed, cities were suffering as a result of HouHou's fraud. He didn't pay property taxes, and his empty houses sometimes burned down, or attracted squatters, or simply rotted away, lowering the value of peoples' nearby homes. Since HouHou was busted, some of America's poorest, most cash-strapped cities have had to spend tax dollars razing them, or dousing their fires, or rousting squatters. The houses themselves are often sold for pennies on the dollar, and many are uninhabitable thanks to neglect, which leads to catastrophes like frozen and burst pipes.
HouHou's greed is clearly to blame here, as is the willingness of his investors to become slumlords. But this is an absolutely predictable outcome of treating housing -- a human necessity -- as a mere asset. The world's great cities and the people who make them great are at the mercy of a global class of housing speculators who increase their profits through a mix of substandard maintenance, rent gouging, strong-arm tactics, and an epidemic of evictions.
It's one thing for useless "assets" like Bitcoin or gold to become the locus of investment bubbles, attracting every kind of grifter and crook, but when it's houses that are being stolen, it's a crisis of an entirely different kind.
Buffalo officials expressed sympathy for Kuwaitis who say they were scammed by HouHou, but said their bigger concerns are the neighborhoods where HouHou houses have sat boarded up and vacant, some harboring rodents and feral cats, and deteriorating to the point of being demolished. Some are located in neighborhoods the city and other investors are working to revitalize.
Sixteen became so dilapidated the city demolished them – usually at taxpayer expense.
Nine caught fire.
Squatters were found in at least one.
Many were vacant. Some were stripped by vandals or damaged by frozen pipes.
Of the 160 houses flipped in Buffalo from late 2013 through mid-2016, about a quarter ended up with housing court judgments, and about half ended up in foreclosure, The Buffalo News found.
How a Kuwaiti's Ponzi scheme left a trail of blight in Buffalo [Susan Schulman/Buffalo News]
(via Naked Capitalism)
(Image: Mubarak Almubarak)
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