Thursday January 21st, 2021
Petaluma goldsmith ‘reacts’ to Ariana Grande’s engagement ring, goes viral
Petaluma, CA, USA, Monday, January 18, 2021._Jordan Mantzke, a professional goldsmith makes rings in his workshop in downtown Petaluma. Jordan made a YouTube video reacting to singer Arian Grandes engagement ring that went viral. The video has gotten over a million views and now he is drowning in orders from around the country. (CRISSY PASCUAL/ARGUS-COURIER STAFF)
(I mean, Crissy is always awesome, but it's kinda feel-good.) The video is at, the follow-up video in which he shares his newfound fame and fortune with the buskers featured in his first video is at $1,000 Surprise for the Musicians!
As expected: Judge Refuses To Reinstate Parler After Amazon Shut It Down
U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein sided with Amazon, which argued that Parler would not take down posts that threatened public safety even in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and that it is within Amazon's rights to punish the company over its refusal.
"The Court rejects any suggestion that the public interest favors requiring AWS to host the incendiary speech that the record shows some of Parler's users have engaged in. At this stage, on the showing made thus far, neither the public interest nor the balance of equities favors granting an injunction in this case," Rothstein wrote on Thursday.
Lesson learned: Don't try to use Slack to transfer larger files. It's particularly slow on the upload, and several minutes of waiting on a download didn't give me a progress bar update. ~450G file size.
I've been reading Justia for their summaries of influential court cases, this morning's email included this: Neil H. Buchanan on Justia: Trump’s Coup Failed, But He Gave Republicans a Road Map to Ending Constitutional Democracy…Soon. Not about the assault on the Capitol, but the prospects for further undermining the legal system.
Adam Neely does a breakdown of Lady Gaga's arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner at the Inauguration yesterday with transitions between 3/4 and 4/4 times, and some cool chords, and, fuck, I've got another person to follow on YouTube, but a lot of really good stuff in here, both in terms of music theory, but also for listening to specific vocal techniques: that "o'er the ram....parts" across the vocal break is mind-blowing for me (especially since she's obviously choosing that, shortly after she goes high with a darker tone that feels very different).
The Walmart Effect: Testing Private Interventions to Reduce Gun Suicide
Abstract This article tests the impact of Walmart's corporate decisions to end the sale of handguns at its stores in 1994 and to discontinue the sale of all firearms at approximately 59% of its stores in 2006 before resuming firearms sales at some of those stores in 2011. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we find that that from 1994 to 2005 counties with Walmarts robustly experienced a reduction in the suicide rate and experienced no change in the homicide rate. These models suggest that Walmart's policy change caused a 3.3 to 7.5% reduction in the suicide rate within affected counties, which represents an estimated 5,104 to 11,970 lives saved over the studied period (425-998 per year). In contrast, Walmart's 2006 and 2011 decisions to discontinue and subsequently resume the sale of rifles and shotguns in many of its stores was not associated with a robustly measured effect on homicide or suicide rates. We do find evidence that Walmart's 2006 decision to reduce the number of its stores that sold firearms caused a statistically significant reduction in the suicide rate for counties in which Walmart did not subsequently resume firearms sales.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110520979404
Via https://mobile.twitter.com/sha...watts/status/1352047154169212928
Wednesday January 20th, 2021
Tuesday January 19th, 2021
Listening to Switched on Pop: 39 Good Music, Bad People, and they're using Lohengrin to semi-redeem Wagner, and I'm thinking about the impacts of traditional marriage and thinking that check needs to go on the negative side...
Listening to Switched on Pop: 39 Good Music, Bad People, and they're using Lohengrin to semi-redeem Wagner, and I'm thinking about the impacts of traditional marriage and thinking that check needs to go on the negative side...
More to counter the "COVID-19 deaths are over-counted" FUD (as if excess mortality stats weren't enough): Almost 30% of Covid patients in England readmitted to hospital after discharge – study
Readmission rate for Covid patients 3.5 times greater, and death rate seven times higher, than for other hospital patients
Preprint: Epidemiology of post-COVID syndrome following hospitalisation with coronavirus: a retrospective cohort study Daniel Ayoubkhani, Kamlesh Khunti, Vahé Nafilyan, Thomas Maddox, Ben Humberstone, Sir Ian Diamond, Amitava Banerjee doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.15.21249885
Conclusions Individuals discharged from hospital following COVID-19 face elevated rates of multi-organ dysfunction compared with background levels, and the increase in risk is neither confined to the elderly nor uniform across ethnicities. The diagnosis, treatment and prevention of PCS require integrated rather than organ- or disease-specific approaches. Urgent research is required to establish risk factors for PCS.
Tiny 3D-Printed DEC VT-102 Hides a Fully-Functional, ESP32-Powered PDP-11 Minicomputer
A tiny screen and a 3D-printed chassis brings some of Digital's fondest-remembered hardware up to date — and down in scale.
Conversation on a private channel about exercise equipment, and... it's so refreshing to have discussion of dumbbells mean "weights" again...
The Wellcome Collection: Sex work through the ages
Historically, prostitution has been punished, sometimes tolerated and only rarely accepted in society. The stories around sex work have been told mostly by researchers, artists and other academics. But today, mapping the different ways in which sex work has been perceived helps us to understand, and to look beyond stigma.
By design, modern medical science refuses to offer existential answers. To the question Why me?, the only honest answer is often We don’t know. Even when there is a clear answer – ‘The lung cancer was caused by smoking’ – patients will still wonder why they were stricken when so many other smokers are not. To broaden the answer with an appeal to genetics or environment is no help, since even together these variables can’t explain their own existence. I can still wonder why I ended up with these lousy genes in this lousy environment.
Likewise, answers to the question What can be done? often prove unsatisfactory because modern medical science limits itself to the illness itself, not the rupture of trust. ...
"Boolean" but pronounced like "Jolene" and you sing the song every time you assign one.
Rest of the thread has lyrics...
Sure, most of you have eye bolts in the ceiling of your rec room, but we put them in the kitchen. The size of the house means we're fitting exercise equipment where we can. In other news, I finally broke down and bought a couple pairs of sweat pants.
Monday January 18th, 2021
2020 — The Game. Content Warning: Contains reminders of 2020.
More reason the COVID-19 stimulus bill should have just been larger flat cash payments (with no means testing, and just recover the money from higher income earners with tax). The PPP program has been a disaster: The Trump administration bailed out prominent anti-vaccine groups during a pandemic
Several of the Facebook pages of these organizations have been penalized by the social network, including being prohibited from buying advertising, for pushing misinformation about the coronavirus.
Sunday January 17th, 2021
This panel is going to be cut into sliding doors for the headboard. All one piece now to make the grain matching easier to track.
Doors glued up
The Bureau has become aware of discussions on social media platforms suggesting that certain radio services regulated by the Commission may be an alternative to social media platforms for groups to communicate and coordinate future activities. The Bureau recognizes that these services can be used for a wide range of permitted purposes, including speech that is protected under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Amateur and Personal Radio Services, however, may not be used to commit or facilitate crimes.
Selfies, social media posts making it easier for FBI to track down Capitol riot suspects
Federal law enforcement hasn't had to use significant legal and technical resources at its disposal because of online documentation.
Women Use Dating Apps To Get Capitol Rioters To Confess And Turn Them In, talking about some of the follow-up to this tweet
I know a friend of a friend who changed her preference on Bumble to Conservative. She’s matching with MAGA bros and they’re bragging and sending her pics and videos of them in the Capitol. She’s sending them to the FBI.
A number of people are pointing to someone who's been known as "John Sullivan" and his involvement in Capitol storming as evidence that there were "antifa" agitators. Tweet thread from November 26 of last year about how this asshole had been kicked out of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest communities in Salt Lake City and Portland
... due to alarming behaviors including grifting/profiteering, self-promotion/clout chasing, sabotage of community actions, threats of violence, and — maybe most disturbingly — ties to the far-right.
A Few More Thoughts On The Total Deplatforming Of Parler & Infrastructure Content Moderation
The "too long, didn't read" version of this argument (and again, please try to understand the nuance) is that even though Parler is currently down, it's not due to a single company having total control over the market. There are alternatives. And while it appears that Parler is having difficulty finding any such alternative to work with it, that's the nature of a free market. If you are so toxic that companies don't want to do business with you, that's on you. Not them.
RT the apocalypse, but make it fashion.✨ @ElleArmageddon
IDK who needs to hear this, but antifa/BLM doesn’t organize the same way the MAGA crowd does because their objectives are entirely predicated on community defense and protecting vulnerable people, rather than actively seizing power.
(thread)
Saturday January 16th, 2021
RT Otto Von Biz Markie @Passionweiss
This is an insane but all too believable story about the dirty cops who killed Andres Guardado -- and how two months prior, they abducted a guy from a Compton skate park who tried to stop them from harassing teenagers, and framed him for being on meth.
RT Portland Police Disrespecter @SoundsnColor
Officer: Do you know how fast you were going?
Me: where were you the evening of January 6th?
Friday January 15th, 2021
Product I want: Box with XLR mic input, headphone jack, Ethernet, Jamulus, and *just* enough UI to tell it what server to connect to. Optimize for low latency from ADC/DACs and the network jack. I would buy one for me, one for my voice teacher.
When the moles are so deeply entrenched: Why DHS Failed To Warn The Country About Jan. 6
“Nobody wanted to write a formal intelligence report about this, in part out of fear that such a report would be very poorly received by the MAGA folks within DHS,” one former DHS official who served in the Trump administration told TPM, on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
In addition, we estimate that the pandemic will result in reductions in life expectancy for the Black (2.10 y) and Latino (3.05 y) populations that are 3 to 4 times as large as the reduction for Whites (0.68 y). The greater toll for the Black and Latino populations arises because of both higher COVID-19 mortality rates and greater susceptibility to COVID-19 at younger ages among these groups compared with Whites. In both of the alternative mortality scenarios, the disparities would remain immense.
PNAS February 2, 2021 118 (5) e2014746118; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2014746118
The lack of new episodes of This Kaiju I've suggests that not nearly enough of you are fans yet. Go. Listen. Make Nobilis and Grig so famous that they make this a priority. https://kaiju.libsyn.com/
Sitting by the river, enjoying the sunshine while I decompress a little bit.
D.C. police officer Michael Fanone: “A lot of people have asked me my about thoughts on the people that helped me. And now that I have kind of processed it all I will say, thank you. But fuck you for being there.”
(With attached video)
Doom scrolling so you don't ha... oh, who the fuck am I kidding? Of course we're all doom scrolling...
I love this because whether it's Ali Alexander who's lying, or legislators Biggs, Brooks, and Gosar, it's still schadenfreude seeing them turn on each other: A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally.
I am shocked, shocked, that there are fascists in the ranks of the Sacramento Sheriff's Depuputies: Sacramento Sheriff Scott Jones Says Some Local Deputies Attended D.C. Trump Rally
U.S. says Capitol rioters meant to 'capture and assassinate' officials - filing:
The detention memo, written by Justice Department lawyers in Arizona, goes into greater detail about the FBI’s investigation into Chansley, revealing that he left a note for Pence warning that “it’s only a matter of time, justice is coming.”
“Strong evidence, including Chansley’s own words and actions at the Capitol, supports that the intent of the Capitol rioters was to capture and assassinate elected officials in the United States government,” prosecutors wrote.
Jacob Chansley is the horns and fur guy (as opposed to the various other horns guys).
'You're Scared Now': Watch Parler Videos Rioters Filmed Inside the Capitol
Videos taken by the pro-Trump mob and originally uploaded to Parler are being re-shared and categorized online to help identity people who invaded the Capitol.
This thread: RT Funkit Toys @FunkitToys
ask me a question about making dildos and i will tell you a funny lie
Thursday January 14th, 2021
Bad lighting, but a very pretty large piece of floating wooden furniture going under the bridge.
Washtenaw County Michigan decriminalizes sex work
The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office is well aware that sex work carries an increased risk for violence, human trafficking, and coercion. Data and experience, however, have shown that criminalizing sex work does little to alleviate those harms. Indeed (as outlined in further detail below) the criminalization of sex work actually increases the risk of sex work-adjacent harm. Accordingly, the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office will henceforth decline to bring charges related to consensual sex work per se. The Prosecutor’s Office, however, will continue to charge sex work-adjacent crime—including human trafficking, violence, and offenses involving children—that directly harm County residents.
Coup tab dump of the morning:
Twitter thread from a Washington local of various videos from outside the storming, including some talk about message boards in the run-up to the speech, and how weird the crowd dynamics were.
“No One Took Us Seriously”: Black Cops Warned About Racist Capitol Police Officers for Years
Allegations of racism against the Capitol Police are nothing new: Over 250 Black cops have sued the department since 2001. Some of those former officers now say it’s no surprise white nationalists were able to storm the building.
Twitter thread from Bellingcat sorting through the Parler video dump
GW Program on Extremism list of those charged with crimes related to the Capitol Hill assault
RT Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi @brokep
The pirate bay, the most censored website in the world, started by kids, run by people with problems with alcohol, drugs and money, still is up after almost 2 decades. Parlor and gab etc have all the money around but no skills or mindset. Embarrassing.
Wednesday January 13th, 2021
RT Richard Masoner 🚴♂️ @cyclelicious
Today's random encounter with a helpful member of the motoring public (HMOTMP):
HMOTMP: "Wear a helmet!"
ME: "Why?"
HMOTMP: "For your brain!"
ME: "What about your brain?"
HMOTMP: "I don't need one, I'm in a car."
ME: "..."
As of today, at least 26 sworn members of U.S. law enforcement agencies from at least 11 states have been identified by law enforcement agencies and local reporting as attendees of the Jan. 6 rally in support of President Trump that sparked a riot at the U.S. Capitol. Beyond that tally, several former law enforcement agents attended the rally, and still more current law enforcement officials are under investigation for making statements in support of the rally.
Rep Richmond voices support for Trump's second impeachment (video)
From NBC's live blog of the proceedings":
“In the first impeachment, Republicans said we didn’t need to impeach him because he learned his lesson," he said as he was reminded he was out of time. "Well, we said, if we didn’t remove him, he would do it again. Simply put, we told you so. Richmond out.”
’Pearls Before Swine’ comic strips about military coup pulled from newspapers by syndicate
“I think that the bottom line is that when you do a series of comic strips about an insurrection in the United States government, you never think there will be an actual insurrection in the United States government,” he added. “Or, maybe it’s just that in the last couple years, if you do strips that assume the worst, you will generally be proven right.”
"I would like to express to you just a cry for clemency, as you understand that my life now has been absolutely turned upside-down," Newbold told ABC News. "I am not a terrorist. I am not a traitor."
Dude doesn't seem to have a clear grasp of what a terrorist is.
Treason Strava: Interactive map of Parler video locations via https://mobile.twitter.com/joe...field/status/1349209609982992386
Remember when all those armed congress people rushed out to the western side of the Capitol and used their personal freedom guns to save Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick and everyone else during the murderous riot? Yeah. Me, too. That was awesome.
Twitter thread on the Parler/Amazon litigation, with highlights from Amazon. Good stuff.
Nicely stating the obvious: RT Hans Noel @ProfHansNoel
Everyone tweeting "1776" and "1984" is really tweeting "1861."
A Proud Boy in Disguise Helped Lead the Insurrection at the Capitol
The man caught on video breaking a window at the Capitol with a riot shield is a member of the Proud Boys who goes by the alias “Spazzo.”
Via https://mobile.twitter.com/mis...sowen/status/1349141288923365377 which has some summarization
Later additions: ‘It was like looking at evil’: The Capitol attack through the eyes of the Massachusetts delegation
“Every panic button in my office had been torn out — the whole unit,” she said, though they could come up with no rationale as to why. She had used them before and hadn’t switched offices since then. As they were escorted to several different secure locations, Groh and Pressley and her husband tried to remain calm and vigilant — not only of rioters but of officers they did not know or trust, she said.
Twitter thread about the kink of C. S. Lewis. If you thought that maybe Aslan was symbolic for furry tendencies well, you may have been right.
Tuesday January 12th, 2021
When I described Parler as "snuff porn", I wasn't kidding: RT Angie Nickamin ✡️ @nickamin20
Lady screaming at Senator Schumer "I actually got sexually excited seeing you hide under your desk...that's how much I loathe you"...
She seems nice.
Has attached video.
Here’s what I think happens in Orwell’s books based on how I’ve heard ‘Orwellian’ used
Julia smiled at Winston and loosened her red chastity sash. “We must go somewhere secret where we can express our views freely,” she said. She led him upstairs over Mr. Charrington’s shop and into a small room with a picture, an old-fashioned clock and a glass paperweight.
“Here,” she said. “My cable news show.”
Ted Cruz claims "hang Pence" needs context. Meanwhile: Rap Lyrics Now Admissible as Court Evidence: A Dangerous Precedent (Guest Column)
"This blatantly racist decision is a travesty," writes veteran attorney Dina LaPolt.
In case this hasn't yet invaded your Twitter: TikTok is making sea shanties big again — Soon may the Wellerman come
So I can show this to Charlene: Tom Jones delivering "Cry To Me" on The Voice UK, at 79 years old, sitting in a damned recliner.
Staten Island politician apologizes for shouting ‘Heil Hitler’ at heated lockdown protest. She clarified that she actually meant to say "Mein Fuhrer"...
Relevant to some conversations we've been having. Gonna see if this is available from Copperfield's: #ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing
Halifax Examiner: Debunking fake supermoons and other internet garbage
The Internet is full of fake and misleading imagery, and for the last six years Paulo Ordoveza, aka Pic Pedant, has been assiduously debunking some of the more egregious examples on Twitter. Ordoveza, who moved to Dartmouth from Washington, DC in 2018, is a web designer and developer working for a local independent production company. (His debunking work is completely separate from what he does for his employers, and he didn’t want to name them.) He started Pic Pedant back in 2014, when he was working on contract with NASA, and was appalled by some of the images shared online. ...
How a Special Forces meme ended up on Pelosi's office the day prior to the Capitol Hill riot. A little history of the GoldCorps. Not sure I buy some of the self-proclaimed innocence in the article, but it's a meme I wasn't aware of.
Morning coup tab dump:
Twitter thread of the names and faces of various participants in the coup attempt
US Department of the Treasury: Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors
Kulyk, a former prosecutor for the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, formed an alliance with Derkach to spread false accusations of international corruption. Onyshchenko, a fugitive from Ukrainian justice due to charges of corruption, provided edited audio tape copies of purported audio recordings of conversations between former Ukrainian and U.S. officials, which Derkach released between May and July 2020 to discredit U.S. officials and influence the U.S. elections. Telizhenko, a former low-level Ukrainian diplomat, orchestrated meetings between Derkach and U.S. persons to help propagate false claims concerning corruption in Ukraine. Dubinsky, who serves alongside Derkach in Ukraine’s parliament, joined Derkach in press conferences designed to perpetuate these and other false narratives and denigrate U.S. presidential candidates and their families.
Via https://mobile.twitter.com/eri...rland/status/1348657841201172482
Poynter: Telling it like it is &mdash when writing news requires distance from neutrality:
The song played in my head as I read a Washington Post story about the attack on the Capitol written by John Woodrow Cox, based on the work of a team of reporters. I have known Cox’s work from his days at the Tampa Bay Times.
In a tweet, Cox shared a four-paragraph lead about what some have called an “attempted coup.” He characterized that lead as “the most astonishing four paragraphs I’ve ever written.”
Amazing interview today w/ @_Shan_Martinez_ discussing extremism in the military. Shannon became a neo-Nazi as a teenager near a military base and knew over 30 soldiers involved before she left the movement. The interview will be on @starsandstripes but I wanted to share this 🧵
For the love of all that is holy do not install the Google Drive sync app unless you have carefully curated your documents directory and know exactly what it will be syncing.
RT Monica Maalouf, MD @MaaloufMD
Censorship is when the government bans implicit bias trainings and the teaching of critical race theory.
Banning fascists from twitter is just the free market being the free market.
Crying because they can't get organic food in prison? Licking the boots of a dude who called your wife ugly? Refusing to stand up to a bully who rewarded 4 years of ass-kissing by encouraging a crowd to kill you? This is the same party that calls us simps, cucks, and snowflakes?
It actually takes two impeachments to vaccinate against Trump
look. no matter what we do, conservatives are gonna say this is like 1984. at this point we should go all in. make ted cruz wear the rat helmet
Fellas, I'm starting to think it wasn't really about ethics in game journalism.
The party of the "free market". Kentucky House Bill 175: AN ACT relating to unlawful discriminatory practices. Sponsors: S. Maddox, M. Hart, R. Goforth, P. Pratt, F. Rabourn, B. Reed
(1)It shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for a financial institution or government entity to:
(a)Refuse to engage in the trade of any goods or services with;
(b)Refrain from continuing an existing business relationship with;
(c)Terminate an existing business relationship with; or
(d)Otherwise discriminate against a manufacturer, retailer, or distributor of firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition; a shooting range; or a trade association because the manufacturer, retailer, distributor, shooting range, or trade association supports or is engaged in the lawful commerce of firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition products.
Because a lot of writing about abuse is ringing really solidly these days: "I have no idea what I've done wrong." Why I distrust parents of estranged children.
Today's coup tab dump:
Just Security — Incitement Timeline: Year of Trump’s Actions Leading to the Attack on the Capitol
Looks like the DOD has quietly 404d that "First Amendment Protests" timeline PDF.
The Nation: Madness on Capitol Hill
“This is not America,” a woman said to a small group, her voice shaking. She was crying, hysterical. “They’re shooting at us. They’re supposed to shoot BLM, but they’re shooting the patriots.”
A reminder that New York Times columnists are morons and should be fired. From October: Ross Douthat: There Will Be No Trump Coup — A final pre-election case for understanding the president as a noisy weakling, not a budding autocrat.
Republicans appear to be finished with the “trying to kill us while blackout drunk” phase of their abuse cycle and into the “crying at us to unlock the door while asking us why we’re being such a bitch about this” part of their abuse cycle.
The Philadelphia police detective reassigned after attending President Donald Trump’s rally in Washington — which ended with the president inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol — called Vice President Mike Pence a “traitor and a cabal operative” after he condemned the violence and publicly lamented an officer’s death.
“You’re a swap creature and fooled us all!” Detective Jennifer Gugger posted on Twitter on Friday, according to a screenshot reviewed by The Inquirer before it was taken down.
Reassigned.