Flutterby™! From 2015-06-01 to 2015-06-30

Via Shadow: Cyclist gets hit by parked car (YouTube).

The animated GIF, and the Reddit thread.

[ related topics: Animation Movies Automobiles Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Huh: Facebook rolls out PGP encryption for outbound emails. https://www.facebook.com/notes...s-from-facebook/1611941762379302

[ related topics: Cryptography ]

Spent a very fragmented Saturday getting a little bit further on the bathroom vanity, and Sunday moving two truckloads of dirt out of the back yard, in the process wrenching out my back (need to be way more aggressive about "noooo, never put dirt in a trash can!"). Anyway, I've got to get the house projects under control so I can play with this sort of thing... John McAbery Wood Sculptures.

[ related topics: Real Estate Woodworking ]

TSA: Still worthless.

Undercover DHS Tests Find Security Failures at US Airports:

According to officials briefed on the results of a recent Homeland Security Inspector General’s report, TSA agents failed 67 out of 70 tests, with Red Team members repeatedly able to get potential weapons through checkpoints.

Alt link.

[ related topics: Aviation History Current Events Guns ]

So this floated across my Facebook feed:

And then this did: The Onion: Open-Minded Man Grimly Realizes How Much Life He's Wasted Listening To Bullshit.

And... yeah... life these days.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Food Work, productivity and environment Pop Culture Education Archival Terry Pratchett ]

RT Shawn S. ‏@DodgerWA:

Bugs often travel in groups, riding single file to obscure their numbers. #devlife

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

RT Bret Victor @worrydream

Immensely beautiful. I could watch this every day for the rest of my life.

[ related topics: Photography Movies Archival ]

js2-mode requires Emacs 24, but SL6 only has v23, and suddenly I'm shaving a whole herd of yaks.

For Terrorist Fear-Mongers, It’s Always the Scariest Time Ever. Indeed: If all of these "leaders" are telling us that they "have never seen a time of greater potential danger than right now and I've never said that before" (Senator Feinstein) and "We have never seen more threats against our nation and its citizens than we do today." (Senator Graham), then it's time to throw these incompetent fuckers out and replace them with politicians who aren't trying to drum up violence against the United States.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music ]

The thing about this article about the Russian Internet trolling agency, is realizing that the U.S. has similar: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

So has Mozilla fired all of their Firefox testers in order to focus on creepy intrusive video chat you can't opt out of?

[ related topics: Open Source Video ]

A huge thank you to Charley's Angels for letting me call for them while Charley was calling up at Redwood Rainbows tonight!

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

New York Magazine: How a grad student uncovered a huge fraud. Fascinating look at the takedown of the LaCour "how we change our opinions" study. Also a good look at academic politics, and why we need the ability to have pseudonymous discussion.

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design Community New York ]

I did a bunch of JavaScript yesterday, a library to move some stuff at work that's currently server-side over to client-side, complete with Mocha tests and what-not.

So a few JavaScript libraries of the moment:

• Knwl.js is a natural language parser in JavaScript
• bind.js is a tiny (<2k) two-way DOM data binding library.

[ related topics: Language Books Work, productivity and environment ]

So apparently Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) are confusing "Eric Snowden" with "Edward Snowden".

Daily Dot: Exclusive interview: Eric Snowden, 70 year old sculptor from New Paltz, NY, tells all:

She [Mikulski] used the phrase “disgrace” in one speech about Eric Snowden.

I’d say say she must know me pretty well. She must be going through my trash.

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design ]

New Invention - Easiest Drawers Ever! (YouTube video) A tablesaw blade that cuts both sides of a drawer miter in a single pass...

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design ]

RT Kieran Healy ‏@kjhealy:

Hedge-Fund manager donates $400m to Hedge-Fund.

(Reacting to the $400m donation to Harvard University by John A. Paulson)

[ related topics: Education ]

You Can Be Prosecuted for Clearing Your Browser History:

Prosecutors are able to apply the law broadly because they do not have to show that the person deleting evidence knew there was an investigation underway. In other words, a person could theoretically be charged under Sarbanes-Oxley for deleting her dealer's number from her phone even if she were unaware that the feds were getting a search warrant to find her marijuana. The application of the law to digital data has been particularly far-reaching because this type of information is so easy to delete. Deleting digital data can inadvertently occur in normal computer use, and often does.

Chilling.

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Privacy ]

3rd millennium problem: torn between responding to prompted tweet so they get billed more, and knowing I'm feeding the trolls.

The more I read about Red Cross disaster response, the more I realize that when the big one hits we're on our own.

Want a building destroyed or people killed? exiftool is your friend: http://www.engadget.com/2015/0...an-isil-base-because-of-selfies/

How every sexual fantasy would actually go. Or at least how 5 of them would...

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

Cross-posting from Facebook:

Sonoma County's Measure A, a 5 year 1/4% sales tax increase, failed. The pitch for the sales tax was, among other things, that we needed to improve our transportation infrastructure facilities, but it was a straight general fund revenue measure, because earmarked funds would have required 2/3rds approval and a general fund tax only needs a simple majority.

Full disclosure: I voted for it, but I wasn't a rabid supporter.

One of the sentiments ascribed to opponents of the measure was that it was giving more money to politicians who had already mismanaged the money we've given them. I have particularly seen this set up by proponents who complain that if we don't trust the politicians we have to spend money, we shouldn't have elected them. So I think it's worth doing a little musing on why politicians get elected.

Voters largely have a few hot-button issues. Many voters are single issue voters. At the state or national level, I confess I'm one of them: by the time we get down to the final election I will vote for the candidate who supports reproductive freedom.

The reality is that by the time we've gotten into the primaries, all of the sane candidates have been winnowed out. All of the candidates who are talking about reducing the influence of the military industrial complex on our government spending, who are against intrusive government surveillance or security theater, who are considering transportation and housing policies that don't encourage economically unsustainable sprawl, are gone, ridiculed into obscurity by a press paid for by advertisers who profit off of governmet silliness.

By the time we get to that final election, I'm holding my nose and voting for the least distasteful option.

So, yes: In some cases, I voted that person into office. That doesn't mean I trust them, or I think they should have any more power, or I should enable them to any further action. For the most part, it means that I think they'll do less damage than the other option.

This is particularly bad at county level politics because we have a local press which seems to be working even harder than the national press at keeping us uninformed. The editorial stance of the Press Democrat and its affiliated properties are, at best, the dead trees equivalent of internet trolls (even as I really respect some of the reporters). If we take the time, and it's a lot of time, to get out and shake hands and have conversations, to attend meetings, to read EIRs and dig through paperwork, we can learn a bit of what's going on, but that's a full-time job. For the most part, we get our voter guide and ballot, we do a little Googling, we choose the least odious candidate, and we get on with our lives.

And even then, if we do choose to educate ourselves, we realize that the system is so complex that trying to improve it is not just a life's work, it's a life's work that's only a living if we cater to the interests who are profiting off of it now.

We don't have time to be informed voters. We, largely, just want to live our lives within a system that works. When we do poke our heads up and look around we see a system that just barely works, say "well, why would I want more of that?", and get back to the world immediately around us.

So, if you think that Measure A failed because voters don't trust the county government to spend it wisely, you're right. If you think we should because we elected those officials, consider what it means to elect them.

If you want to help us be better informed so that we can elect better officials... well, there's a movement I'm sympathetic to.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Privacy Nature and environment moron Theater & Plays Consumerism and advertising Work, productivity and environment Heinlein Civil Liberties Net Culture Currency Douglas Adams Real Estate Government ]

I have had this vision that I have been having trouble describing to Charlene. This isn't exactly it, but the wall-mounted carved tree sculpture might help me explain it.

New questions about conflict-of-interest through doubt on the APA (American Psychological Association)'s "independent" investigation on CIA links.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Invention and Design ]

Okay, so you read The Nib: The Internet's most-trolled cartoonist, about anti-Federal Reservve political cartoonist Ben Garrison, and ya think "wow, those 4chan trolls sure are annoying, hey?"

And then you read The New York Times on that Russian organization that's hiring professional trolls, and ya start to wonder...

Who's paying the trolls who are trying to discredit Ben Garrison?

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design moron Net Culture New York ]

Shadow writes: "Know those big huge SUVs with bicycle racks on the back? This is... a little different." Giggle. And: Awesome http://imgur.com/lUy9Ukm

[ related topics: Humor Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Galactic Dimension

... is a supersized pinball machine which I [Niklas Roy]’ve built for Phæno – an amazing science center in the German city of Wolfsburg. The pinball was built on a steep ramp in the exhibition hall and has a gigantic playfield, which measures 3×6 meters in total.

Speaking out against autism speaks even if it means no ice cream.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs ]

The Craigslist job ad with incredibly detailed requirements, that are largely mis-spelled.

[ related topics: Heinlein ]

Read the TPP! http://www.readthetpp.com/

Safeword! Safeword!

[ related topics: Photography ]

RT Jeffrey Tumlin ‏@jeffreytumlin:

Gays travel half the daily distance as straights: traffic implications of n'hood cohesion. http://www.accessmagazine.org/...15/the-social-context-of-travel/

Schneier: NSA running a massive Intrusion Detection System (IDS) on the Internet Backbone:

To me, the big deal here is 1) the NSA is doing this without a warrant, and 2) that the policy change happened in secret, without any public policy debate.

[ related topics: Privacy Weblogs Sports Net Culture Cryptography Archival ]

RT Kylie Brakeman ‏@sexypitabread:

I accidentally said "pastryarchy" instead of "patriarchy" and now I have a vision for a better world

RT August Joki ‏@augustjoki

Typo of the day: “derpecated”.

Sigh

[ related topics: Photography ]

Dear Lazy Web: What's the cheapest way to get a device that plays DRM'd Amazon video?

[ related topics: Books Video ]

California is sinking: https://www.revealnews.org/art...s-sinking-and-its-getting-worse/

[ related topics: California Culture ]

Obama under pressure to release secret pages of 9/11 report 'showing Saudi Arabia financed attacks'.

How much energy has been put into trying to pin something on the State Department for Benghazi, when there's 28 pages redacted by the Bush Whitehouse about the financing of the 9/11 attacks?

[ related topics: Politics Current Events ]

Anyone else noticing all the holes cut in SMART fences so that people can continue to use bikes to get around Santa Rosa? #mobility

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

Working on the bathroom vanity side

[ related topics: Photography Work, productivity and environment ]

I could swear that when I laid out the louvers I had a better grain pattern. Must rearrange...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Okay, if you haven't read it, this has an awesome twist and is worth the quick read: Buffalo Marathon: An Unlikely Duo.

Now this must be quite the sight. A tall, skinny white boy and the short, well-built Ethiopian woman are cruising mile after mile together. No one else is around us anymore. We are running so tight that our elbows touch several times. Even our breathing syncs up as we push over the small hills and concede to the extra effort put forth.

Via a bunch of places, but I didn't actually read it 'til I saw it on MeFi.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Sports Race Woodworking ]

Just finished @ferretthimself's new novel "Flex". Modern fantasy with a lot of the feel of early cyberpunk. I liked it a lot.

[ related topics: Erotic Invention and Design ]

The Relationship of Parties and Policies:

Nonetheless, when the specifics in Plan A were presented as the Democratic plan and B as the Republican plan, Democrats preferred A by 75 percent to 17 percent, and Republicans favored B by 13 percent to 78 percent. When the exact same elements of A were presented in the exact same words, but as the Republicans’ plan, and with B as the Democrats’ plan, Democrats preferred B by 80 percent to 12 percent, while Republicans preferred “their party’s plan” by 70 percent to 10 percent. Independents split fairly evenly both times. In short, support for an identical education plan shifted by more than 60 points among partisans, depending on which party was said to back it.

Via On The Nature of Confirmation Bias.

[ related topics: Nature and environment Education ]

tota11y - an accessibility visualization toolkit. Apparently the cool kids are shortening "accessibility", as in making the web usable for folks with various sorts of disabilities, to "a11y", and this is a tool to help you catch up with all of the HTML5-ish stuff.

Along with what you should already be doing, which is: Make sure your site is usable and readable in Lynx.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

RT @EdinaHotdish:

If GOP NC Gov doesn't view waiting 72 hrs as restricting abortion, then waiting 72 hrs to buy a gun wouldn't restrict gun rights, correct?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Sexual Culture Civil Liberties Guns ]

Always amusing when we discover people we know from one context in another, pseudonymous context. Identity is difficult, but fun.

On Freecycle: "Offered: various drapes/curtains". And I have to wonder if they... ahem... match.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Another bit of awesome from Shadow: horse bicycle animated gif.

[ related topics: Animation Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Haven't dug into this, but as the collapse of the for-profit college industry begins, this MeFi entry on the government forgiving student loans at Corinthian Colleges is giong to be something to refer back to.

Also a good place to play college degree bingo, if you're into "degrees shouldn't be about what they mean to employers" and "what about the humanities?" and such. Also, ignoring the monetary cost of these loans, we should also consider the social cost of of the years spent pursuing these paper chases.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama moron Work, productivity and environment Education ]

Headline writers: Can we replace "[pedestrian/cyclist] hit by [car/minivan/truck]" with "hit *with*"? Two such in Bay Area news today...

[ related topics: Writing Current Events California Culture Automobiles Machinery ]

Facebook advertising in a nutshell: Some sort of Korean phishing site, and some sort of lip implant snake oil. This is... uh... sustainable, no?

[ related topics: Photography Consumerism and advertising Archival ]

A Former Cop On What Went Wrong In McKinney

Twitter heaps mockery on white McKinney man who called cops on black kids with #SeanToon911.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Law Enforcement Race ]

Yesterday, phone step counter told me my run at lunch was 6700 steps, today 5101. Guess my stride is getting longer.

So remember how the Soviets had that space shuttle knock-off that could actually land itself? It was kinda like they'd worked out the kinks, gotten rid of the NASA cowboy-isms, and built a decent space vehicle?

http://ralphmirebs.livejournal.com/219949.html

I've often wondered what a large scale economic collapse looks like. I think it looks like that.

Via Lindsey Marshall.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Astronomy Economics Real Estate ]

Eros Blog: When “Protecting The Children” Does The Opposite. On how we hear these assertions about ISIS/ISIL, about young girls being sold off as sex slaves in public markets, but not only is there nothing but hearsay about this, any actual evidence being passed around would be quickly prosecuted under child pornography laws.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Erotic Sexual Culture Weblogs Economics Government ]

Revealed: Emails show how industry lobbyists basically wrote the TPP.

UCLA Professor Finds Marijuana Is Safer to Smoke Than Tobacco.

“The smoke content of marijuana is very similar to that of tobacco,” explains Tashkin. “There is a higher concentrate of cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana tar, and it reaches the lungs before any other organ, so there is this idea that they are related in causing the same health issues of the lungs.”

But, he says, “Through my studies, we failed to find any positive association.” Instead, “the association would be negative, between lung cancer and the use of marijuana. The likelihood is, that despite the fact that marijuana smoke contains carcinogens, we don’t see the same heightened risks of cancers that we see in tobacco.”

Via.

[ related topics: Drugs Music Weblogs Health ]

Best wishes to @genehack, going under the knife shortly. Rock this one, dude, even though you'll be under anaesthetic!

[ related topics: John S Jacobs-Anderson ]

It's Shockingly Common for New Yorkers to Blow Through Red Lights:

When students from Hunter College conducted an observation of the traffic at 50th and 7th, they saw almost 30 percent of drivers running the red there. At the intersection of 88th Street and 4th Avenue in Brooklyn, another spot that the students studied, a staggering 37.3 percent of drivers kept cruising after the light had turned against them.

PDF of the study by Peter Tuckel and William Milczarski.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Sports Education New York Woodworking ]

Sounds water is still too cheap: the amount of unrecycled pressure washing I've seen recently

Finally watched Citizenfour. You should see this film. Early in this presidential election cycle.

[ related topics: Movies Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Broga: The Manly Mindfulness Movement that's Sweeping the Nation.

Because Yoga's like something that chicks do. Yo.

If the TSA is spending $7B to find 5% of items that could be potential threats to aircraft, then clearly we need to add another $137B to catch the other 95%. Or we could just acknowledge that with locked cockpit doors we've solved the big threat.

Bruce Schneier: Reassessing Airport Security.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Weblogs Aviation Cryptography Archival ]

One of the few blogs that was around before mine: CamWorld is back! http://camworld.org/

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett ]

How to Stop the Stadium Wars: Cities and suburbs compete for the privilege of wasting millions on new sports complexes. Obama has an idea to end the madness.

Basically, try to do again what was attempted back in 1986. The parallels between Obama and Reagan continue...

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

Ecstatic Nextdoor post: "Cherry has been found". Didn't think it was my business that she lost it, but then realized that Cherry is a pet,

Seems as though we might be able to look at Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas as experiments in state economic policy...

[ related topics: Economics ]

Two guys in the business park this morning. Thought "When did Mormons start wearing colored shirts and patterned ties?", but then realized.

[ related topics: Clothing ]

People who think it's funny to juxtapose headlines about Twitter CEO (Dick Costolo) and XOXO Fest lineup (the founders of Suck)...

Gonna blame it on the heat: Phone tells me the lunch-time run was 2.31 miles in 22:13, or 9:36 minute miles.

RT Omer Shapira @omershapira:

Lots of people in my feed mocking this concept. All of them were born with 4 functioning limbs and social mobility

Let's talk about being, say, mid teens. Maybe male, in decent shape. Maybe gone out for a high school long distance running practice and pretty much smoked all but the fastest runner, and can hop on a bike and hammer out 60 or 70 miles no problem, manage a 15 or 20 foot crossing on a tight rope, handle a canoe on whitewater, juggles balls or pins, socioeconomic background that confers some advantages. So pretty good at manipulating the physical reality, 4 functioning limbs...

But something about that social thing doesn't click. Something about the school thing, the focus on socialization over knowledge, on rote regurgitation over thinking, on external rewards, doesn't click.

RT Omer Shapira ‏@omershapira:

Of course, you won't meet the audience most likely to find solace in this statement, because they rarely leave their houses to your vicinity

But, really, they do. Invisible because they pass, because they do a decent, if relatively quiet job of looking "normal". Sure, there's something about the clothing that seems weird, the sense of humor maybe.

One day, amidst the squeal and warble of an acoustic coupler, in dot matrix type, a world unfolds. To call this world "low res" is an understatement. It's maybe 40 columns wide, possibly all upper-case, unfolds at 30 characters a second, which is slower than most of us read. But the relative sensory paucity of this world is overridden by one thing: a social environment that matters, that carefully ponders the difference between ethics and morality, and is willing to abandon the latter. It provides an environment for re-inventing self. Identity comes from constructions that aren't necessarily reflections of pop culture, and nobody makes fun of that.

And, suddenly, manipulating that world, understanding that world, building that world, is the most important thing.

A decade or so later, maybe a little bit more, that world has grown up. The economic value of the skills necessary to manipulate it is leaking out into the broader world, the broader world is slowly leaking in. There's also confidence building, the fully constructed identity becomes hybrid: there's a name one could find in a phone book, but the pursuits and passions are still acceptable.

Of course this process continues, the virtual world becomes diluted by the real world, some of the ideas of the online leak out into the physical. Teens become middle-age and a paunch, those neurons that used to be able to compensate for the qiver of a taughtly stretched hemp rope atrophy, falling hurts. Maybe social skills improve, it's easier to "pass", rather than being the weirdly dressed kid it's now witty and engaging with slightly eccentric ideas that nobody understands, but seem profound without being pretentious. And we've all won. Kind of.

RT Omer Shapira @omershapira

Let's talk about art that makes you feel powerless rather than products that make you feel more powerful

And here's where we part ways. I don't want to afflict the comfortable. That "real life"? It's a social construct, of fashion and fashionable, of trends and marketed pop idols, and fuck it, if that's what turns you on, it's yours and more power to you. It is the world, "real life", and it has its place and if people find solace in it that's great.

But it doesn't change except when the fringes assimilate it and drag it in more interesting directions, and right now we have precious few fringes. Sure, we pass, but there's tremendous isolation in passing. And, to the earlier point, there's even more isolation in not passing.

So, yeah: 4 functioning limbs, social mobility, and well aware that somewhere out there there's the wharbling of an acoustic coupler, the buzz of a thermal printer, the click of a keyboard, and a world that's more compelling than "real life". Maybe it's all happening in the physical world now, maybe cyberspace is a social construct of the "real life" of two decades ago attempting to understand, but it's there.

And we should find it and celebrate it, because it's how we're going to foster the big ideas that'll bring the next positive revolution in our culture and world. And, yes, it will be scoffed at and mocked. "real life" fears change, fears growth, fears innovation, and it responds with scorn and ostracization.

Fuck that.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Humor Books Photography Ethics Nature and environment Sociology Law Art & Culture Heinlein California Culture Sports Pop Culture Whitewater Fashion Clothing Bicycling Economics Archival Real Estate ]

A few thoughts on https://twitter.com/omershapira/status/609095115626438656 : http://www.flutterby.com/archives/comments/21779.html cc @lisarokusek

[ related topics: Archival ]

Wanting does not, alas, make it a word...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Without Scrabble, I would have never learned of the word "cockade". And, no, it's not vitamins for your rooster.

[ related topics: Health Scrabble ]

The Economics of Reproducibility in Preclinical Research:

Low reproducibility rates within life science research undermine cumulative knowledge production and contribute to both delays and costs of therapeutic drug development. An analysis of past studies indicates that the cumulative (total) prevalence of irreproducible preclinical research exceeds 50%, resulting in approximately US$28,000,000,000 (US$28B)/year spent on preclinical research that is not reproducible—in the United States alone. We outline a framework for solutions and a plan for long-term improvements in reproducibility rates that will help to accelerate the discovery of life-saving therapies and cures.

[ related topics: Health History Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Economics ]

When the Wall Street Journal is praising the FDA for its food safety efforts(!): Before the Maggi Noodles Scare: Look at What the U.S. FDA Found in Indian Snacks.

[ related topics: Food Economics ]

Dear Roku: you have my email address because I just bought your product. Why would I want to see a sale on more? #targetedmarketingfail

Called it "Bob", and yeah, it smelled just as sweet.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Back from seeing Tomorrowland with Forest. What a sad hot mess of on the nose script. Disappointed. What happened?

"Hey, can you help me review some code? I want to make it bullet-proof."

"Get me an AK47, we're going to do some testing."

Holy crap: SourceForge has gone full-on hostile. Warning: Don’t Download Software From SourceForge If You Can Help It.

Other developers didn’t actually choose to enable DevShare. GIMP is currently listed as “brought to you by: sf-editor1″ on SourceForge. Click through to sf-editor1’s list of projects and you’ll see quite a few projects hosted by SourceForge itself, from Audacity and OpenOffice to Firefox.

Click through to a project’s official website and you’ll find actual download links. For example, Audacity’s homepage redirects you to FOSSHUB to download Audacity, not SourceForge. But searching for “Audacity” on Google still brings up the SourceForge page as the top result.

And apparently they're detecting runs in VMs and making the installers play nicely there, to foil people who want to gather data on the malware they're installing.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Bay Area Software Engineering ]

RT Eric Sprankle, PsyD (@DrSprankle)

If abortion providers are required to tell patients they have the option not to abort, shouldn't obstetricians tell patients they can abort?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Sexual Culture ]

Lunchtime run was down to 9:15/mile for 2.3 miles. Prev run was 9:36/mi; I like the trend, even if the numbers are pretty lousy.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Thinking about how Tomorrowland was actually pessimistic SF, the thing it was railing against, because it was so forced.

[ related topics: Bay Area ]

How the marriage equality movement forgot its pioneers. I had no idea that the first same-sex marriage licenses were issued in the '70s.

[ related topics: Politics Erotic Sexual Culture Political Correctness Sociology Marriage ]

More targeted marketing fail: Twitter just hit me up with a survey about hair care products...

[ related topics: Photography Consumerism and advertising Marketing ]

I could swear I already posted and retweeted this one, but I'm not finding it, and it's worth repeating just because: RT I Really Like Bears ‏@tonitonirocca

Genders are like cars, everyone keeps telling me I abso need one and I keep going "I LIVE IN SAN FRANCISCO"

[ related topics: Bay Area Theater & Plays California Culture ]

Shared the calling at Redwood Rainbows tonight with Michael, I did Plus, he did A, had fun, and got to try some lefty material.

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

Jeb Bush on the Pope's climate change push:

He later added, “I don’t go to Mass for economic policy or for things in politics. I’ve got enough people helping me along the way with that.”

WTF does he go to Mass for, then? The outfits? Furtive trysts in the confessionals?

[ related topics: Politics Nature and environment Economics Global Warming ]

Pilot Shortage: Where’d All the Pilots Go? Great read if you fly, or if you lead people.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Lunch time run down to 9:05 a mile for the 2.3mi loop. Liking the trend.

Amazon's new API format: XML wrapped in JSON. https://payments.amazon.com/do...on/automatic/201752090#201757720

[ related topics: Web development Books Content Management Invention and Design ]

An Evangelical Pastor at his first Pride Parade https://medium.com/@adamnichol...-first-pride-parade-cb0b1ce69c15

The disturbing part about the GOP presidential candidates? We haven't seen a viable one yet, so there are more yet to join the race.

By the way, it is Thursday, which means pupusas & conversation at noon in Santa Rosa, NW corner of Marlow & W. College Ave.

[ related topics: Education ]

Writer Cormac McCarthy's ex-wife arrested after pulling pistol from vagina and threatening boyfriend.

The article merely specifies "Smith & Wesson". Whether that was a "Small Frame (J)" chassis revolver, such as a lady might carry in her purse, a classic 686 with the 6" barrel like one might expect to see John Wayne carrying in a belt holster, or a full-on Model M&P15ORC Rifle which takes 5.56 NATO, a capacity of 10 rounds, and a 16" barrel with a fixed stock is apparently left to the imagination of the reader...

[ related topics: Politics Sexual Culture Writing Current Events Guns Economics Marriage ]

Heinz forced to apologise after QR code on ketchup bottle linked to hardcore porn site.

Don't let your domain names lapse, kids.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Erotic Sexual Culture Food Current Events ]

OH: "When you believe something strongly enough, you manifest it. That's what I believe." Guess she's manifesting that...

With this "Relentlessly Gay" thing, has the Conservative Christian movement really gone to endorsing grey eastern bloc brutalist buildings?

[ related topics: Religion Sexual Culture Architecture ]

Ad on one of those spammy linkbait sites: "This is the last bullet you'll ever need". Uh... for what purpose?

Big gathering in the turning basin

[ related topics: Photography ]

Yesterday's lunch, pupusa, tamale, enchilada, for @brendanstallard

[ related topics: Photography ]

Saw notes in my social media feed about the crowds for a parade, thought "Pride's not 'til next weekend, and Friday?" Some sportball thing.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Heinlein Woodworking ]

9:00.5min/mi for today's 2.3mi run. Day on, 1 to 2 days off seems like it's working so far.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

Reason: How Government Stifled Reason's Free Speech: Yes, the feds can compel magazines and websites to cough up user information about obviously non-threatening trolls, while barring them from even acknowledging it.

Yeah, the comments are in bad taste, but this was going beyond the pale. Not in hunting down trolls who might have been making actual threats, but in suppressing speech around that hunt.

[ related topics: Weblogs moron ]

David Ardia: Why news orgs can police comments and not get sued. A good look at section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996.

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement ]

Larry posted this little note on the Covenant of the Rainbow, in the context of "relentlessly gay"

[ related topics: Photography Sexual Culture Gambling ]

Two from Shadow:

• a really cool wave cabinet, by which: It opens via a whole bunch of chained slats.
• Battle Bots premiers tonight on ABC. Fascinating that this series is hitting one of the big networks.

[ related topics: Home Improvement ]

So Charlene can see what I did with the white pseudo wrought iron fence that used to be along here

[ related topics: Photography Race Gambling ]

This is freakin' amazing: From 2x4 to ukulele (videos), building a ukulele from a 2x4, with some fantastic methods of work.

LumberJocks page of the 2x4 ukulele

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

Mapping The Confederate Streets of South Carolina.

[ related topics: Weblogs Maps and Mapping ]

RT Chribba ‏@ChribbaVeldspar:

If someone says they're gonna open up a can of whoop ass, that means someone out there is canning whoop ass. I be more afraid of the 2nd guy

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Today's run down to 8:30 min/mi for the 2.3 mile loop! Finally feeling like I'm back on my running feet.

[ related topics: Sports ]

Fantastic interview with the author of @AfAmHistFail on giving slavery presentations at a historical plantation.

Via MeFi, wherein it is asked:

I am confused; can someone explain why the patriots of South Carolina are so eager to fly the Confederate flag, but not the flag of Great Britain? I mean, it's an important part of our heritage.

[ related topics: Clothing ]

Oh, look, some Perl CPAN operation has thrown me into Moose & Dzil & whatnot versionitis hell. Haven't had that pain for a while.

[ related topics: Perl Open Source hubris ]

The @WTFpod interview with Barack Obama is a fascinating look at how media is changing and two different styles of guiding conversation.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

This. Is. Hilarious. I'm a female scientist and I agree with Tim Hunt.

Introducing the Research Buzz firehose

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Kimchi Cuddles is

A webcomic spreading awareness about poly, queer, and genderqueer issues in the most hilarious way possible

and in my RSS reader now.

[ related topics: Content Management ]

Rest days matter: today's run 8:41min/mi. "...catch up with the sun when it's sinking, racing around to come up behind you again"

[ related topics: Sports Java ]

The man who was jailed for 22 years – on the fantasy evidence of a single hair:

Kirk Odom spent 31 years in prison and on parole after pseudoscientific analysis that has finally been discredited. Now the FBI admits it was wrong – in Odom’s case, and many thousands like it

Kinda like fingerprints and phrenology, hair matching was yet another fantasy spun up by the FBI to use to bolster false convictions.

[ related topics: Erotic Star Trek Law Current Events Law Enforcement ]

Shadow sent along this wood flooring and staircase combo that might actually be a little too much grain. Although I did like clowndickfart's comment:

I thought Imgur was not allowing porn anymore

[ related topics: Woodworking ]

Your daily dose of cat vs bear:

• http://imgur.com/gallery/Vmuts2X
• http://imgur.com/0V580rt
• http://imgur.com/uQaH9lk

We are laughing over gamed Amazon reviews, and being shoed how it's done

[ related topics: Books Photography ]

So it's not really networked, given that Netflix has a box in most ISP's data centers to move the network load locally, but I think my bandwidth bet with TC... well... yeah, I'm gonna lose that one.

Variety: Netflix U.S. Viewing to Surpass ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC by 2016: Analysts. Not all 4, but it will be the new largest network.

Here’s how the analysts did the math: Netflix said users streamed about 10 billion hours of video in Q1 2015, equating to nearly two hours per subscriber per day. The FBR analysts calculated what Netflix’s Nielsen rating would be by dividing the two-hour figure by 24 hours, then multiplying that by the number of Netflix U.S. subs as a percentage of households.

That would give Netflix an overall rating in Q1 of 2.6, on par with ABC and NBC. And given that Netflix is growing usage at a compound annual growth rate of more than 40% — while broadcasters are on average declining — that means the streamer will have a larger 24-hour audience than all broadcast networks.

[ related topics: User Interface broadband Invention and Design Current Events Mathematics Video ]

Wait, Joe Biden is running? This changes... well... uhmmm... huh. https://www.draftbiden2016.com/

[ related topics: Sports ]

So http://www.fuckinginappropriate.com/ had a redesign. Same great writing, and a reminder of what we ask of our military.

[ related topics: Writing ]

Snerk. Some dude from Freecycle is trying to gaslight me. Internet trolls get email filtered to trash.

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

Welcome to the future: Mock a truly awful book/scam on social media, get showered in ads for it

[ related topics: Books Photography moron Journalism and Media ]

Elf Sternberg: The parallels between paranormal romance and black romance:

I haven’t read Ward, but having read (a few) romance novels by black writers, and (many more) paranormal romances, I’ve come to a conclusion: Paranormal romance creates for white writers and readers fictional worlds of immanent, anarchic existential threat from vast and powerful forces mostly beyond the protagonists’ control. Black romance writers already live in such a world, and feel no need to add vampires and werewolves to their characters’ already overwhelmingly complicated lives.

[ related topics: tolkien Theater & Plays Writing Race ]

In http://www.reddit.com/r/worldn...drivers_lock_down_paris_in_huge/ genericname12345 riffed on the notion of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books...

If you believe that all life is predetermined and cannot be changed, turn to page 23.

If you believe that all humans are masters of their destiny and make their own life, turn to page 23.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Books ]

Every time says "privacy" in the context of computer systems, I see a mess of state I need to transfer to make it usable. Trade-offs.

[ related topics: Privacy ]

Procedural Justice: The simple idea that could transform US criminal justice. On Judge Victoria Pratt in a Newark, New Jersey municipal court.

Criminal justice systems everywhere run on the assumption that people obey the law because they are afraid of punishment. B Tyler argued that the key factor is legitimacy: people obey the law because they believe the state has the right to tell them what to do. Broad legitimacy matters more than whether people believe an individual law to be right or wrong – although the public’s view about individual laws can influence broad legitimacy.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Law Current Events Law Enforcement Government ]

I like what the Supreme Court has been doing on my birthdays: Obergefell v. Hodges opinion makes same sex marriage legal nationwide!

The opinion: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Sociology Law Marriage ]

Anyone know anything about licensing old (1940s) radio show scripts? I know how to do music mechanicals...

[ related topics: Music ]

I'm a software developer who has made ink squirt on to page, which is why I'm running around trying to figure out printer config.

[ related topics: Software Engineering Sports ]

This week in one photo, from Facebook user John Pearley Huffman who credited Brian Thomas Collins.

Bonus: http://imgur.com/Y3YwASm

[ related topics: Photography Archival ]

RT Miss Witch ‏@evilgaywitch

cryptography-fanfiction.txt

RT Miss Witch ‏@evilgaywitch

“Eve carefully tried to monitor Alice’s messages to Bob, to see if she really loved him, or if her friendship with Alice was something more”

RT Miss Witch ‏@evilgaywitch

It’s not “Adam and Eve”, it’s “Alice and Eve”, haven’t you read any cryptography papers, Bob is just Alice’s beard.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Privacy Pop Culture Cryptography ]

Dry fitting the vanity door, trying to take advantage of every bit of space

[ related topics: Photography Space & Astronomy ]

Looking east from this morning's hike

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

Looking south...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Hike discussion of Russia. Scary thought of the moment: what if Bush, Cheney and Wolfowitz had been the response to the Ukraine situation?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Nature and environment Community ]

Something to consider next time your local sportsball franchise is asking for subsidies because of what they allegedly do for the local economy: RT Eλf Sternberg ‏@elfsternberg:

The southernmost light rail terminal to Seattle is full. On a Sunday. For Pride. That doesn't happen for football or baseball games!

[ related topics: Games Sports Trains Seattle Economics ]

RT Paul Coombs ‏@paulcoombsart

#Dildoflagman it is I.

Hello world. I come in peace & love (& defiant dildos) Thank you all for the support cxx3

which linked to RT @dildoflag

#DILDOFLAG MAN is @paulcoombsart, a dong-obsessed artist from London. Go say thanks! :) #isisdildo #buttplugflag

Yay dildoflags!

[ related topics: Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Art & Culture Archival ]

How are camera makers trying to differentiate themselves now that everyone has a high quality phone bolted on to their cell phone? Nikon's P900 point & shoot with 83x optical zoom, pointed at the moon (YouTube video).

$600. For an F6.5 birding camera (F2.8 on the close end).

Some reviews:

• http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-p900/nikon-p900A.HTM
• http://www.gizmag.com/nikon-coolpix-p900-83x-megazoom/36347/
• http://www.dpreview.com/products/nikon/compacts/nikon_cpp900

Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Wireless Photography Movies Fabrication Video ]

American Journal of Public Health: The Unintended Consequences of Changes in Beverage Options and the Removal of Bottled Water on a University Campus, Elizabeth R. Berman, BS, and Rachel K. Johnson, PhD, MPH, RD:

Results. Per capita shipments of bottles, calories, sugars, and added sugars increased significantly when bottled water was removed. Shipments of healthy beverages declined significantly, whereas shipments of less healthy beverages increased significantly. As bottled water sales dropped to zero, sales of sugar-free beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages increased.

Via JWZ.

[ related topics: Weblogs Health Robotics Education Model Building ]

If you've been wondering where the next episode of Journey Quest is: http://renewjourneyquest.zombieorpheus.com/

[ related topics: Interactive Drama tolkien ]

RT Peter Gleick ‏@PeterGleick:

Scalia rules death penalty executions are apparently legal if done with power plant mercury emissions.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Astronomy Law ]

Extended the run to 4.5 miles, 9:34min/mile but including stopping to return a pursuing dog to its owner, and a long stretch on rough grass.

Google Maps tells me it's 4.7 miles, which ups it to 9:09 min/mi.

[ related topics: Dogs ]

Online discussion which credits GoF book with popularizing MVC. Those who do not learn from history... http://ask.metafilter.com/2820...eb-is-scripting-nowadays#4088760

[ related topics: Books Community ]

Chattanooga History Center adds historical film to online archive.

[ related topics: Movies Chattanooga ]

So is there any glory in "just finishing" a marathon? Considering the Santa Rosa one, just for trying to finish sub 7 hours.

[ related topics: Sports ]

Amazon: Introducing s2n - a new Open Source TLS implementation. This is a replacement for the "libssl" portion of OpenSSL, it doesn't replace libcrypto.

In order to simplify our TLS implementation and as part of our support for strong encryption for everyone, we are pleased to announce availability of a new Open Source implementation of the TLS protocol: s2n.  s2n is a library that has been designed to be small, fast, with simplicity as a priority. s2n avoids implementing rarely used options and extensions, and today is just more than 6,000 lines of code. As a result of this, we’ve found that it is easier to review s2n; we have already completed three external security evaluations and penetration tests on s2n, a practice we will be continuing.

https://github.com/awslabs/s2n

[ related topics: Language Free Software Books Privacy Invention and Design Cryptography ]

Just registered for the Santa Rosa Marathon, Sunday August 23rd. Goal: finishing in under the 7 hours the course is open.

[ related topics: Sports ]

A little slower on the 2.4 mile short loop today: just about 9 minutes/mile. Call it a recovery day. And it's hot out there!