Flutterby™! From 2017-06-01 to 2017-06-30

Lowering The Bar: Ninth Circuit Breaks New Ground in Sexy-Cop Jurisprudence.

In 2011, Michele Santopietro and Lea Patrick traveled to Las Vegas, where they intended to act as street performers on the Strip. Specifically, they planned to dress up as sexy cops and pose for pictures with tourists in exchange for tips, the sort of thing that is also common in Hollywood, for example. See, e.g., “Nobody Tells This Wookiee What to Do,” Lowering the Bar (Feb. 6, 2007). In Vegas (and probably also in Hollywood) the authorities take the position that actually selling this service would require a license to do business in the county, but you don’t need a license if working only for voluntary donations (i.e., tips). I don’t know what it takes to get a sexy-cop license, but neither of these sexy cops had one, and they were arrested by undercover officers (sexiness unknown) who claimed they were actually demanding money. ...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement Currency Gambling ]

Professor Yoo's flawed study flunks test on municipal broadband.

At another point, the study notes that the authors did not have certain data for seven of the 20 projects being studied, so they made projections based on data that they had for the remaining 13 projects. ...

Basically, dude got industry dollars for a study which tried to cook the books to suggest that municipal broadband is a bad idea. This calls him out, showing that actual data after his carefully chosen study period from Chattanooga, Lafayette, and Wilson doesn't match projections.

[ related topics: Books broadband Food Chattanooga ]

It was at this point that I realized hiring someone else for the rest was a bargain

[ related topics: Photography ]

Flower bed removed, drain line dug, the rest of the gas trench dug, space cleared for the slab for the pumps and the heater (and I checked, and we need more space than the documentation said). Didn't get forms built, but calling it a day. Need to sort permit issues this week for replacing the sidewalk to run the drain under it and expand the driveway apron. Maybe build forms in an evening this week, and hope the slab permit comes through shortly...

[ related topics: Photography Space & Astronomy Furniture ]

Shadow passed along: Instagram: matteotrentin Always wear a helmet fellas!!it can also happen that during training a bear cross your path when you are in a fast downhill. ...

College ROI. On why college is probably not a good economic investment.

[ related topics: Education Economics ]

#coffee is the color: hexadecimal color specifications (as one might use in HTML or CSS) that are also words...

Quick Tip: The easiest way to grab data out of a web page in Python:

It’s that simple! Pandas will find any significant html tables on the page and return each one as a new DataFrame object.

The demo ends up as:

import pandas as pd
calls_df, = pd.read_html("http://apps.sandiego.gov/sdfiredispatch/", header=0, parse_dates=["Call Date"])
calls_df.to_csv("calls.csv", index=False)

[ related topics: Invention and Design Monty Python Python Furniture ]

Remember "Longhorn" and all of the tremendous things that Windows Vista was supposed to be? What Really Happened with Vista is worth a read.

[ related topics: Microsoft ]

The US DOJ released an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant for Reality Leigh Winner because of a document dated May 5^th. Ignoring the fact that the heroine in this story is named like a character from a Philip K. Dick or Neal Stephenson novel, this is interesting because The Intercept released a document dated May 5^th as Top-Secret NSA Report Details Russian Hacking Effort Days Before 2016 Election.

Soooooo..... the USDOJ just confirmed the validity of the NSA report on the Russian election hacking effort.

That's some really interesting political gamesmanship being played there...

But another reminder: Every document you print has the printer serial number and a timestamp embedded in the output. Careful with that paper, kids. Errata Security: How The Intercept Outed Reality Winner. Washington Post: The Easy Trail that led the Feds to Reality Winner, alleged source of NSA leak. This Twitter thread. This other Twitter thread.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Politics Privacy Weblogs Robotics moron Current Events Law Enforcement Embedded Devices ]

Couldn't get anyone too return my calls about concrete removal, so continued the march...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Right now there's a huge marketing economy in the "Instagram Lifestyle" genre. I know I've seen at least one friend commenting about running into some of the "Van Life" folks wrapping up their photo shoot at the campground and then heading into town to stay at the Hyatt. The whole Kardashian celebrity thing seems apparently driven by Instagram followers.

So what happens when advertisers and sponsors suddenly catch on that this Instagram economy is largely driven by malicious browser plug-ins and bot C&C networks?

Russian State Hackers Use Britney Spears Instagram Posts to Control Malware.

[ related topics: Photography Current Events Consumerism and advertising Sports Pop Culture Marketing Economics ]

Statement for the Record Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, James B. Comey, June 8, 2017 (PDF).

[ related topics: Politics ]

A little guerrilla road signage at 5th and I St.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Redditors design worst volume sliders possible. Pretty sure some of these folks work for Facebook and Twitter...

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Graphic Design ]

Do not go under a raised body, it may drop and kill you.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Tennessee Ernie Ford was bad-ass, we only moved 9 tons of concrete today...

[ related topics: Photography Chattanooga Automobiles ]

Three trips like this. Dump trailers are awesome.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Don't overload the wheelbarrow. Don't overload the wheelbarrow. Don't...

[ related topics: Photography ]

I don't know why they weighed us, it's always been a flat fifteen bucks...

[ related topics: Photography ]

They didn't plan the background well. Waiting to call at the San Rafael swimming fundraiser.

[ related topics: Photography Bay Area ]

Quigley Introduces the COVFEFE Act:

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (IL-05), co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Transparency Caucus, introduced the Communications Over Various Feeds Electronically for Engagement or “COVFEFE” Act. This bill codifies vital guidance from the National Archives by amending the Presidential Records Act to include the term “social media” as a documentary material, ensuring additional preservation of presidential communication and statements while promoting government accountability and transparency.

[ related topics: moron Journalism and Media Archival Real Estate Furniture ]

After the run today

[ related topics: Photography ]

How the U.S. Triggered a Massacre in Mexico. DEA gets a tip about a Zetas operation and some critical cell phones...

Then the DEA took a gamble. It shared the intelligence with a Mexican federal police unit that has long had problems with leaks — even though its members had been trained and vetted by the DEA. Almost immediately, the Treviños learned they’d been betrayed. The brothers set out to exact vengeance against the presumed snitches, their families and anyone remotely connected to them.

and then tens, possibly hundreds of people are killed and the town of Allende is destroyed.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Gambling ]

Jeff Sessions personally asked Congress to let him prosecute medical marijuana providers:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public Monday.

Because "states rights" is only a thing when it's in support of racism or misogyny.

[ related topics: Drugs Politics Law Current Events Civil Liberties Race ]

RT @ButtCoin:

popular ethereum wallet helpfully sends all of your coins to the developer. https://www.reddit.com/r/Crypt...ewalletorg_scam_millions_stolen/

Build digital currency wallet, get great app store reviews, wait for popularity, abscond with all the *coins.

[ related topics: moron Currency ]

Cosmopolitan: 10 Unretouched Romance Novel Covers Reenacted by Real People.

BoredPanda's rip-off of the Cosmo article, kept here just in case one stays up and the other doesn't.

[ related topics: Law ]

Just finished a tour of the Fremont Tesla factory. Now I have all sorts of questions about the details we were to far away to see...

Rigged. Forced into debt. Worked past exhaustion. Left with nothing.

A yearlong investigation by the USA TODAY Network found that port trucking companies in southern California have spent the past decade forcing drivers to finance their own trucks by taking on debt they could not afford. Companies then used that debt as leverage to extract forced labor and trap drivers in jobs that left them destitute.

[ related topics: broadband History Current Events California Culture Machinery ]

Yeah, sure, Alex Honnold recently fre-soloed El Cap, but let's look to the real accomplishments: First naked ascent of El Capitan:

El Capitan saw two firsts last week. On June 3, Alex Honnold made the historic first free solo of the monolithic wall via Freerider, climbing the route with nothing but the clothes on his back. On June 6, Leah Pappajohn and Jonathan Fleury traded out the clothes for a rope and completed the first naked ascent of El Cap via the Nose in a day. We spoke to Pappajohn about the ascent.

A couple of awesome quotes from that interview:

As I was stemming up the first section of the great roof, Jon admitted that he had never stared at a vagina for so long. Just a part of the job description of an attentive naked belayer.

And

There is now real nude El Cap beta. The beta is that clothes only slow you down.

Via For the first time ever, climbers ascend El Capitan naked

[ related topics: Nudity Current Events Clothing Yosemite Woodworking ]

Wait, when I bought the house I thought I paid the extra for the Northern California weather package. It's way too freakin' hot!

[ related topics: California Culture Real Estate ]

one sensor says it's 108 in the shade of my shop

[ related topics: Photography ]

Well, I guess it's probably about time to concede to TC on the bandwidth bet. The network topology doesn't look anything like it did back in 2000, we could make an argument based on that, but culturally the water cooler discussion is way less important than I thought it'd be: Netflix Is Now Bigger Than Cable TV. Maybe, this doesn't capture all of the cable companies, just the big ones.

Via ZeroHedge (which is too linkbaitish and rip-off to link to directly or without a rel="nofollow".

[ related topics: Technology and Culture broadband Current Events Television Community ]

Oh, look, prosecutors in the Manning/Wikileaks case lied. This is my shocked face.

Secret Government Report: Chelsea Manning Leaks Caused No Real Harm:

Prosecutors said WikiLeaks' disclosures about Iraq and Afghanistan posed a major threat to US national security. But it turns out the classified document they cited — newly obtained by BuzzFeed News — said almost the exact opposite.

[ related topics: moron Law Current Events ]

How a company you've never heard of sends you letters about your medical conditions:

When asked about its partnership with Acurian, Walgreens spokesperson Scott Goldberg pointed me to a Walgreens FAQ page about clinical trials. It states that Walgreens doesn’t share health information with third parties without permission, but that a third party may “receive your information if you contact the web-site and/or toll-free number in the letter to seek more information about the clinical trial.”</blockquote<

And those "clinical trial" web sites will grab anything you type in, and use all of the standard ad network tricks and tools to establish your identity, including sending back any data you've entered before you've clicked on any terms and conditions documents.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health broadband ]

Believing the System is Fair Predicts Worsening Self-esteem and Behavior for Marginalized Youth

The researchers found that believing the system is fair was associated with better outcomes at the start of middle school, but worse overall outcomes over the course of middle school. By the end of the 7th grade, youth who believed the system was fair in 6th grade had lower self-esteem, engaged in more risky behaviors, and were less able to follow directions in the classroom. For risky behavior, this reversal was particularly pronounced for youth who reported experiencing more discrimination.

Yeah. Maybe stop lying to kids.

[ related topics: Children and growing up ]

London mayor considers pay-per-mile road pricing and ban on new parking:

“We have to make not using your car the affordable, safest and most convenient option for Londoners going about their daily lives. This is not only essential for dealing with congestion as London grows, but crucial for reducing our toxic air pollution and improving the health of all Londoners.”

[ related topics: Health Invention and Design Current Events Automobiles ]

The robots have taken the jobs: How Just 14 People Make 500,000 Tons of Steel a Year in Austria.

[ related topics: Cool Science Robotics Current Events Gambling ]

Another reason to not let apps get too much control over your phone: More Android apps from dangerous Ztorg family sneak into Google Play.

[ related topics: Sociology ]

75 Lesbian Ken Dolls, Ranked By Lesbianism. Barbie got a girlfriend. And even if you run out of steam, because it does go on, scroll down to #s 3 through 1.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Sexual Culture ]

Can sex in later life improve brain health?

Dr Hayley Wright discusses research which explores whether sex for the over 50s can protect – and even improve – cognitive functions.

That seems to be a little over-stating it, there's correlation, not cause. So we don't know whether being smarter and cognitively sharp leads to more sex, or vice-versa, but who's willing to take that risk?

Another article: Reuters: Healthy brain linked to active sex life in old age.

All about: Sex on the brain! Associations between sexual activity and cognitive function in older age:

Results: after adjusting for age, education, wealth, physical activity, depression, cohabiting, self-rated health, loneliness and quality of life, there were significant associations between sexual activity and number sequencing and recall in men. However, in women there was a significant association between sexual activity and recall, but not number sequencing.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Health broadband Bioinformatics Mathematics Education ]

The Science Is Clear: More Highways Equals More Traffic. Why Are DOTs Still Ignoring It?

[ related topics: Gambling ]

Democracy Fund Voter Study Group: Political Divisions in 2016 and Beyond. Among the conclusions:

• To the extent that the Democratic Party is divided, these divisions are more about faith in the political system and general disaffection than they are about issue positions.
• By contrast, Republican voters are more clearly split. For the most part, Trump and Cruz supporters look fairly similar, though Cruz supporters are considerably more conservative on moral issues, and notably less concerned about inequality and the social safety net, and more pro- free trade. Kasich supporters are the true moderates, caught in between the two parties on almost every issue, both economic and social.
• In both parties, the donor class is both more conservative on economic issues and more liberal on social issues, as compared to the rest of the party

Most interesting bit: How few socially liberal economic conservatives there actually are:

[ related topics: Politics Photography Ethics moron Economics ]

IoT goes nuclear: creating a ZigBee chain reaction is a little blog post exploring what a paper of the same name, IoT goes nuclear: creating a ZigBee chain reaction (PDF), means.

Short version: Given the recently discovered security flaws, doesn't take a huge density of Philips Hue lightbulbs to create an environment in which an exploit spreads between them via ZigBee...

Related: last night Charlene and I went to a talk about the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918, and the historian noted a correlation with streetcar lines. I think this is important to think about as I2V and V2V communication gets forced on us...

[ related topics: Weblogs Nature and environment ]

Le clitoris - Animated Documentary (2016)

Also from Lori Malépart-Traversy, a cute little set of fruit based animations: “Get Consent” Campaign for the Concordia Sexual Assault Resource Centre

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Animation Joss Whedon - Serenity / Firefly ]

Because I'm gonna wanna find it: Motorcyclist kicks car and triggers chain-reaction crash in apparent road-rage video.

Direct link to the Facebook version of the video.

Looks like the sedan driver merges over into the HOV lane to get closer to the motorcyclist. I can fill in the blanks about what was happening previously, but CHP is looking for the motorcyclist as a hit-and-run suspect. If I were the motorcyclist's lawyer, I think there's a strong case that stopping anywhere near someone who'd just tried to kill me with a deadly weapon is a bad long-term survival strategy.

And I hope there are "assault with a deadly weapon" charges coming against that sedan driver.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Theater & Plays Law Automobiles Guns Video ]

Japanese porn industry hit by a shortage of men:

Shimiken — real name Ken Shimizu — has slept with more than 8,000 women for his 7,500 movies, and recently caused a stir by begging for reinforcements, tweeting that there were more Bengali tigers alive than male porn actors in Japan. "There are about 70 male actors to 10,000 women," he said. Shimiken's call to arms was retweeted thousands of times by fans worried about Japan's $20 billion adult video industry coming under threat. "It is boring for viewers to watch the same actors all the time. That's the biggest worry," he added.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Content Management Movies Current Events Video ]

Nature abhors a vacuum, and a cat abhors a closed door.

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

Washington Post: A black off-duty cop tried to help stop a crime. Another officer shot him:

Tate said the incident was a case of “a black professional, in law enforcement, himself being shot and treated as an ordinary black guy on the street. This is a real problem.”

I'm... I'm... I'm fucking speechless. Yeah, how dare this guy's client be treated like "... an ordinary black guy on the street." He's behind the Blue Wall, he shouldn't just be shot like an ordinary citizen. I mean, what are cops coming to when they can't tell their own from an ordinary black guy.

Holy shit.

[ related topics: Law Current Events Law Enforcement ]

It's desert trying to pretend. And it's a dry heat.

[ related topics: Photography ]

At the top of the Palm Springs tram. Mount San Jacinto state park.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Unclear on the organization here, unless this is a "the difference between gay and straight is alcohol" thing

[ related topics: Photography Sexual Culture ]

Why NotPetya Kept Me Awake (& You Should Worry Too). A bunch of interesting notes on how it spread, and how it appears to be malware masquerading as ransomware, probably to mask sources as state sponsored terrorism, and why we were lucky.