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On June 19, 2020, Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoSecrets), an alternative to Wikileaks (Columbia Journalism Review) that publishes caches of previously secret data, released a partially scrubbed 269 gigabytes of data obtained from a security breach at Netsential (Krebs on Security), a Houston-based web development firm. Over the weekend, critics of police abuse took to social media to celebrate the leak and display documents that purportedly came from it (ArsTechnica), using the #BlueLeaks hashtag on Twitter.
comment posted at 9:16 AM on Jun-25-20
comment posted at 9:18 AM on Jun-25-20

Many cannabis users claim that edibles have a much stronger effect than inhaled weed, and there may be a pharmacological reason for it. Whatever the cause, there are many stories of edibles gone wrong.
comment posted at 5:40 PM on Jul-28-19
comment posted at 5:52 PM on Jul-28-19

Apple claims that AirPods are building a “wireless future.” Many people think they're a symbol of disposable wealth. The truth is bleaker.
comment posted at 10:38 AM on May-8-19
comment posted at 10:55 AM on May-8-19

How "Liberal" Late-Night Talk Shows Became A Comedy Sinkhole This derangement presumably stems from a refusal to face the America that propelled Trump to the White House. For all they hate him, they yearn, as he does, for a “lost” country that younger generations view with skepticism. “No one wants to confront the fact that they grew up in a time that was pretty sexist and racist because then they’d have to stop being nostalgic for everything,” this writer says. “See: Aaron Sorkin.”
comment posted at 10:06 PM on Apr-27-19

Moreover, American Media is undeterred from continuing its reporting on a story that is unambiguously in the public interest — a position Mr. Bezos clearly appreciates as reflected in Boies Schiller January 9 letter to American Media stating that your client “does not intend to discourage reporting about him” and “supports journalistic efforts.” That said, if your client agrees to cease and desist such defamatory behavior, we are willing to engage in constructive conversations regarding the texts and photos which we have in our possession. Dylan Howard stands ready to discuss the matter at your convenience.
America Media Inc (owner of the National Inquirer) attempts to extort Jeff Bezos. Bezos responds by making the threat public
comment posted at 7:55 AM on Feb-8-19

Amazon built systems to protect brand-identity, punish review-spammers, and protect consumer safety, and then they were weaponized by unscrupulous sellers. Behind the state-sized commercial venue that is Amazon Marketplace, there's a shadow judicial system, with alarmingly inflexible systems and policies. Blacklisted sellers report that finding out what they ostensibly did wrong is frustrating, and the appeals process isn't designed to determine innocence. Now sellers are framing their rivals to thrust them into this system, and a class of seller advocates has sprung up to monetize the process of getting disentangled from it. (via Schneier on Security).
comment posted at 1:22 PM on Dec-21-18
comment posted at 1:32 PM on Dec-21-18

Did you want a quiet week? Events in US politics are occurring at an impossible to comprehend pace. Today, the President announced that Secretary of Defense Mattis will be "retiring" at the end of February. The Secretary's resignation letter cites differences of opinion with the President on "treating allies with respect and also being clear-eyed about both malign actors and strategic competitors." The President announced he will not sign any government spending bill that does not include funding for a border wall (WaPo), leaving the government headed toward a partial shutdown. New work requirements could take food stamps away from 750,000 people (Vox). A new policy will require asylum-seekers to be turned away and wait in Mexico (Vox) as they wait months or years for their applications to be processed. Ethics scandals around the Mueller investigation developed for both the acting (WaPo) and prospective (WSJ) Attorneys General.
comment posted at 8:35 PM on Jan-4-19

So what is Andrew Zimmern — the award-winning, Minneapolis-based star of the Bizarre Foods television juggernaut, famous for trying anything with a smile and for encouraging others to do the same — doing opening a chain of Chinese restaurants? That’s the question not just at the heart of the Fast Company interview (YT video), but also one that’s currently at the center of the conversation about culinary appropriation in American food: Who gets to represent whose food, and to what audience? (Eater)
comment posted at 6:27 PM on Nov-25-18

Like every other part of the music world, taping has changed utterly in the digital age. Once dismissed as mere bootlegging, the surrounding attitudes, economies, and technologies have evolved. It's been a long haul since Dean Benedetti recorded Charlie Parker's solos on a wire recorder. In the '60s and '70s aspiring preservationists snuck reel-to-reel recorders into venues under battlefield conditions, scaling down to professional quality handheld cassette decks and eventually to DATs. From there, to laptops and finally to portable drives ... The Invisible Hit Parade: How Unofficial Recordings Have Flowered in the 21st Century -- Jesse Jarnow writing for Wired, linking the tech pioneers of the Grateful Dead (also Wired) to NYC Taper and others sharing on Etree.
comment posted at 7:17 PM on Nov-25-18

Welcome to Christmas in Hallmark Town, where romantic fates are sealed through gaslighting, sabotage and torture. (SLSalon)
comment posted at 8:24 PM on Nov-25-18
comment posted at 8:43 PM on Nov-25-18

"So playing this, every single time I see something undeniably British, which is approximately every 1.6 seconds in Horizon 4, I double-double-take." John Walker over at Rock Paper Shotgun writes about the strange un-uncanny valley roadtrip that is being a British person, raised on a diet of American driving games, confronting a driving game that is actually casually understatedly British.
comment posted at 11:55 PM on Oct-23-18

Little Caesars Is 'Investigating' After Location Allegedly Caught Selling DiGiorno Frozen Pizza
comment posted at 11:29 PM on Oct-9-18

Guy meets lady on Tinder; they chat and exchange details. A few weeks later, she texts him, asking him out on a date the following day, and suggesting that they meet in front of a stage in Union Square, Manhattan, where a friend of hers is DJing. He shows up, hanging off to the side; and then the DJ stops and she walks on stage and addresses the hundred-strong, predominantly male crowd (SLTwitterThread)
comment posted at 11:43 PM on Aug-21-18

Alex Jones, the First Amendment, and the Digital Public Square - "How should we challenge hate-mongering in the age of social media?"
comment posted at 6:55 PM on Aug-21-18

“Second home. Second home. That one’s a second home. Second home. Second home. That’s a holiday let. Second home. These people live here all the time. Second home.” St Ives is a lovely seaside town in Cornwall in the UK, home for years to artists because of the quality of its light, and where Virginia Woolf was inspired to write To The Lighthouse. It's still home to thriving culture like the iconic Tate St Ives (one of only four Tate galleries in the world) with its programme of international modern and contemporary art, theatres, museums and art spaces, pubs and restaurants - but Cornwall is one of the most deprived areas in western Europe, and the average house price in St Ives is 18 times the typical local salary.
comment posted at 12:49 PM on Aug-21-18

Are you being served? Maybe not, if you're a fascist. This story and more coming up, as we review the latest dispatches from an America in crisis.
comment posted at 9:12 PM on Jun-25-18
comment posted at 12:34 AM on Jun-26-18

Kant didn’t believe a dog like Mu could think or distinguish between bad and good because she isn’t self-aware. For this reason, she is not moral. This view—which is known as human exceptionalism—persists today. But increasingly philosophers and scientists argue that animals are moral and that we humans may just be insufficiently aware of their inner lives to understand how or why they decide to do what they do.
comment posted at 10:59 PM on Jun-25-18

Roseanne is cancelled after Roseanne Barr compared Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape. Earlier, Wanda Sykes had already announced she wouldn't return.
comment posted at 6:18 PM on May-29-18
comment posted at 7:14 PM on May-29-18
comment posted at 10:13 PM on May-29-18

"The rapid increase in technology over the last thirty years has changed a lot of basic cinematic conventions. Entire plots that once hinged on characters being able to fake identities, get lost in a new place, or have a case of mistaken identity are all but gone from contemporary films because of the internet. [...] Here are some great films from just the last thirty years that would have had their entire premise derailed if they took place in a world where smart phones were available." • The movie plots technology killed • 8 movies technology made obsolete • 90s plot lines that modern technology ruins entirely • 23 famous movie plots easily solved by text messages • 17 movies that would be over in 5 minutes in 2017
comment posted at 11:22 PM on May-28-18

There seems to be no simple answer to Nakesha Williams's life of brilliant promise undone by mental illness. "She said she loved novels, and they discussed the authors she was reading, from Jane Austen to Jodi Picoult. She and P.J. chatted as time allowed, or until Nakesha veered into topics that hinted at paranoia: plots and lies against her. "
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Mar-3-18
comment posted at 9:50 AM on Mar-3-18

Quite possibly, octopi are too stupid to take over the world. According to Slate, there are an awful lot of questionable and questionably presented stories on the intelligence of octopi.
comment posted at 10:02 AM on Mar-3-18

"Gaming the lottery seemed as good a retirement plan as any."
The Lottery Hackers
comment posted at 6:51 PM on Mar-1-18

“The rogue’s gallery of right-wing supporters, from Milton Friedman to Charles Murray, is often unambiguous in its desire to use basic income as a knife to eviscerate the expensive insides of the welfare state. To different degrees, recent support within elite tech-chauvinist circles, from Peter Thiel to Mark Zuckerberg, might be similarly understood. How on earth could Marxists form a political alliance with the boy-king of Silicon Valley? Perhaps some elites see basic income as a pragmatic means to avoid the radicalization of a population that has seen little improvement in living standards in recent years, but others envision a Trojan horse designed to raid the citadels of Social Security, Medicare, and education spending.“ Debating Universal Basic Income - David Calnitsky (Catalyst)
comment posted at 12:27 AM on Mar-2-18

Day 303: it's turkey time, and Republicans are putting tax and spending cuts on the table, which many are finding an unpalatable centrepiece. CBO estimates suggest that poor Americans' gooses in particular will be cooked if the bill passes, with households earning under $50,000 increasingly worse off. Republican senators have stated, on the record, that major donors will not be inviting them back for a second helping of support if the tax cut bill fails. The House bill has been served but the Senate bill is still in the oven, and preparing it will involve two opposed groups coming together with a shared purpose, and also some way of massaging the figures so they won't increase the deficit. [This is a catch-all US politics thread; Roy Moore talk goes here]
comment posted at 6:09 AM on Nov-25-17

The Way We Talk About Puerto Rico Is Bullshit
The Media Really Has Neglected Puerto Rico
comment posted at 6:03 PM on Oct-15-17

As America reels from the mass shooting in Las Vegas (the third such shooting regarded as the deadliest ever in a decade), Puerto Rico citizens have gone nearly two weeks without power, with reports that already ageing infrastructure has been irretrievably destroyed. (Puerto Rico's infrastructure status page reports only 5% of the network is operational.)
comment posted at 5:53 PM on Oct-15-17

Bill Cassidy still is a liar / Tom Price is a luxury flier / And Kim Jong-un’s aim / He says, is to tame / The POTUS, a dotard, with fire.
“My earlier invite’s withdrawn!” / Insisted the president, Don. / “Steph wouldn’t have come; / He told you, u bum,” / Observed a 3rd-party, LeBron
comment posted at 10:12 AM on Sep-30-17

Hllary Clinton's book What Happened set sales records amid a mass fake review campaign. She's on tour to support her book. So what did happen? "I understood that there were many Americans who, because of the financial crash, there was anger. And there was resentment. I knew that. But I believed that it was my responsibility to try to offer answers to it, not to fan it. I think, Jane, that it was a mistake because a lot of people didn't want to hear my plans. They wanted me to share their anger. And I should've done a better job of demonstrating 'I get it.'"
comment posted at 12:36 PM on Sep-23-17

Steely Dan’s Walter Becker Dead at 67 | Becker was born Feb. 20, 1950 in Queens, N.Y., and was raised in the borough community. Initially a saxophonist, he took up the guitar as a teen. He encountered his future partner Donald Fagen as a student at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, while playing a gig at the local club the Red Balloon.
comment posted at 7:15 AM on Sep-4-17
comment posted at 7:43 AM on Sep-4-17
comment posted at 8:05 AM on Sep-4-17

Mueller convenes a Grand Jury while Trump tweets concern about our relationship with Russia.
comment posted at 5:32 PM on Aug-9-17

Comedian Iliza Shlesinger causes a stir when she makes some comments about the subject matter of fellow female comedians' acts: "I could walk into The Improv, close my eyes, and I can’t tell one girl’s act apart from another. That’s not saying that 30-something white guys don’t all sound the same sometimes, but I’m banging my head against the wall because women want to be treated as equals, and we want feminism to be a thing, but it’s really difficult when every woman makes the same point about her vagina, over and over. I think I’m the only woman out there that has a joke about World War II in my set." Summary on Splitsider, including some now-deleted tweets. Shlesinger also has declared herself finished with the debate: "Anyway, I'm done here. Enjoy your life" (Twitter)
comment posted at 7:45 AM on Jun-21-17

Nuclear arms tests by Pyongyang / ICE is deporting everyone that they can / Israel’s ambassador says that Jews are Nazis / And President Bannon does whatever he please / Looks like another threat to world peace / Caused by the POTUS
comment posted at 11:05 AM on Mar-24-17
comment posted at 1:37 AM on Mar-27-17
comment posted at 11:06 AM on Mar-29-17
comment posted at 11:11 AM on Mar-29-17

A Sign Thanking People For Not Feeding Ducks Bread Has Gone Viral And People Are Freaking Out
comment posted at 4:05 AM on Mar-24-17

Watch Inuit mussel gatherers in Kangiqsujuaq, Quebec descend into caves that are created under Arctic ice during low tide.
comment posted at 9:18 AM on Mar-17-17

A Washington Post Op-Ed today states: It’s hardly just coincidence that the Trump executive branch is rife with beliefs that are wholly disconnected from reality. The Congressional Budget Office today projected that 24 million Americans will lose health insurance in 10 years. And a late-breaking Politico scoop: the executive branch analysis forecast that 26 million people would lose coverage over the next decade,.
comment posted at 8:54 AM on Mar-17-17
comment posted at 9:34 AM on Mar-17-17