Flutterby™! From 2019-09-04 to 2019-09-27

All I wanted to do was drop a car at the tire place and walk back to my parents' house. This town does not want to encourage pedestrians.

[ related topics: Photography Automobiles Real Estate ]

Airporter buses run at 11:00 and midnight thirty. Flight scheduled for 11:09 arrival. Landed at 10:40 or so, we've been sitting on this taxiway for 10 minutes. My short lived hopes for a before 1AM bed time have been cruelly dashed.

[ related topics: Aviation Public Transportation Furniture ]

I have seen a number of responses to the San Francisco just passed a resolution calling the NRA a ‘domestic terrorist organization’ story that are along the lines of "well, should we blame AAA for automobile related deaths?" And I was like "if you look at AAA's lobbying efforts, maybe we should", but then right below a link to this someone linked to this article: Deaths From Red Light Running At A 10-Year High, AAA Study Finds, a AAA spokesman saying "Drivers distracted on their phones, pedestrians distracted when crossing intersections, are all reasonable contributing causes to what we see the data telling us".

Pedestrians distracted on their phones. Yes, Mr Jake Nelson, let's go to the data: From the New York City Department of Transportion's look at distraction and collisions, http://home.nyc.gov/html/dot/d...straction-shouldnt-be-deadly.pdf :

"According to the last six years of available national data, fatalities involving the use of portable electronic devices by pedestrians ranged from one to twelve per year, representing 0% to 0.2% of pedestrian traffic fatalities".

And just wait 'til you see the numbers on how many fatalities were due to motorists not yielding the right of way to pedestrians.

So, yes: the data suggest that AAA is a terrorist organization.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Invention and Design Bay Area California Culture Sports Automobiles New York ]

On the one-hand, wait 'til they learn about cars. On the other hand, yes, mixed traffic is something we need to design for: NYC bicyclists are killing pedestrians and the city won’t stop it

Although data show the number of hurt pedestrians dipped from 315 in 2017 to 270 last year, roughly 300 people a year have been hurt by cyclists since the city began tracking such accidents in 2011, including a high of 361 injuries in 2015 and three deaths in 2014.

Be interesting to see if someone's got data on relative bicycle vs bus vs car passenger miles traveled within NYC to do some normalization.

Via Shadow.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Automobiles Graphic Design Pedal Power Bicycling Public Transportation ]

Reasons we should stop the cult of celebrity: New science blooms after star researchers die, study finds

Now a new study co-authored by MIT economist Pierre Azoulay, an expert on the dynamics of scientific research, concludes that Planck was right. In many areas of the life sciences, at least, the deaths of prominent researchers are often followed by a surge in highly cited research by newcomers to those fields.

[snip]

The paper, “Does Science Advance one Funeral at a Time?” is co-authored by Azoulay, the International Programs Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management; Christian Fons-Rosen, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California at Merced; and Joshua Graff Zivin, a professor of economics at the University of California at San Diego and faculty member in the university’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. It is forthcoming in the American Economic Review.

[ related topics: Religion Children and growing up Invention and Design Space & Astronomy Current Events California Culture Education Economics Aviation - Helicopters ]

US offers cash to tanker captains in bid to seize Iranian ships:

“This is Brian Hook . . . I work for secretary of state Mike Pompeo and serve as the US Representative for Iran,” Mr Hook wrote to Akhilesh Kumar on August 26, according to several emails seen by the Financial Times. “I am writing with good news.”

The “good news” was that the Trump administration was offering Mr Kumar several million dollars to pilot the ship — until recently known as the Grace 1 — to a country that would impound the vessel on behalf of the US. To make sure Mr Kumar did not mistake the email for a scam, it included an official state department phone number.

Yeah, I know that when I get messages like this the first thing I do is call the "official" phone number included in the message...

[ related topics: moron Writing Current Events Work, productivity and environment Machinery ]

Des Moines attorney unveils her life as a prostitute

She began working as a prostitute three years ago, at the age of 27. Sears travels to Nevada, where prostitution is legal, and works in a brothel.

“You can make a job out of this? That’s fantastic,” Sears said. “Why would I not do this?”

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Law Work, productivity and environment Heinlein ]

Vitamin E acetate found in marijuana and tobacco vaping products linked to deadly lung illnesses, tests show

[ related topics: Drugs Health ]

Why are politicians in the UK so eager to accomplish Brexit? Some have speculated that it's because The 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive goes into effect "by 10 January 2020".

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Civil Liberties Currency ]

College students think they learn less with an effective teaching method

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom Louis Deslauriers, Logan S. McCarty, Kelly Miller, Kristina Callaghan, and Greg Kestin

PNAS first published September 4, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821936116

[ related topics: Beer Education ]

Hey, we've found something other than frequency of ejaculation that might impact prostate cancer risk: Eating mushrooms may help lower prostate cancer risk

Shu Zhang, Yumi Sugawara, Shiuan Chen, Robert B. Beelman, Tsuyoshi Tsuduki, Yasutake Tomata, Sanae Matsuyama, Ichiro Tsuji. Mushroom consumption and incident risk of prostate cancer in Japan: A pooled analysis of the Miyagi Cohort Study and the Ohsaki Cohort Study. International Journal of Cancer, 2019; DOI: 10.1002/ijc.32591

Why The Measles Surge Could Open The Door To A Host Of Other Diseases. Measles erases immunity:

But it wasn't until 2015 that Mina and his collaborators were able to do a comprehensive statistical analysis of data reaching back to the 1940s. They found spikes in deaths from other childhood infections were directly predicted by measles outbreaks. And the effect lasted two to three years beyond the measles outbreak.

Since the publication of that finding — in the journal Science — researchers have found additional evidence for the immune amnesia hypothesis.

Including BMJ Open: Impact and longevity of measles-associated immune suppression: a matched cohort study using data from the THIN general practice database in the UK

[ related topics: Children and growing up Databases ]

If you're following Brexit, I laughed out loud: Marina Hyde: Dazed and confused, Johnson stumbles into the twilight zone with a police escort

Why do people still call it a Tory “split” on Europe? It’s not a split: it’s an episiotomy. The Tory episiotomy on Europe went septic this week as Boris Johnson expelled 21 MPs, including two former chancellors and his hero Winston Churchill’s grandson; lost his own brother in a tale we’ll call Cain and Far More Able; and gave a speech so hallucinatorily bad it whiteyed a policewoman. At the current rate, even Robert Caro will only need a week to write this Johnson biography.

And it gets better.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Law Enforcement Video Gambling ]

Shadow passed along a video for the MX3d Arc Bike II 3d printed aluminum... looks like a road bike. The static page is at https://mx3d.com/arc-bike-ii/ , though the video has some 3d printing construction shots which are really cool (they're using a standard robot arm, not a gantry, for the printer).

Manufacturing is changing in mind-blowing ways.

[ related topics: Movies Robotics Graphics Machinery Fabrication Video Bicycling Model Building ]

Your short snippet of urban mountain bike insanity for the day: Insane ride in the Membrane

(Thanks, Shadow)

[ related topics: Bicycling ]

SESTA/FOSTA is turning the web into a G-rated minefield. Here’s how to destroy it.

A legal filing submitted mid-February by Walters says, “FOSTA caused [the Woodhull Foundation] to censor its publication of information on its site that could assist sex workers negatively impacted by the law, and to cease posting other resources for sex workers.” The filing also says the Internet Archive worries it could be held legally liable for any archived webpages that promote sex work or trafficking.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Free Speech Law Work, productivity and environment Net Culture ]

Looks like the US intelligence agency is ready to start burning low-level secrets in order to reassure various embedded assets that despite the risks from Donald Trump, the US has their back: Exclusive: US extracted top spy from inside Russia in 2017

(For completeness for the archives: WaPo: A shocking CNN scoop confirms: Officials are defending our country from Trump

[ related topics: Politics Robotics Embedded Devices Archival ]

Why does the Dept. of OB/GYN at the University of Utah offer a premarital exam for women?

First, there is the lack of a “premarital exam” for men in the Department of Urology. Is the implication here from the University of Utah that heterosexual men are naturally informed about sex? Are heterosexual women expected to be virgins? Why does a vagina medically need prepping for sex and not a penis?

So many questions. So much anger.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Education ]

A little podcast news:

• Girl In Space has new episodes. I didn't think anything particular of it, the new episode showed up in my player (and I should probably move that subscription over to Patreon so I get the episodes early), but Shadow mentioned it, so if it fell off your player now's the time to find it again.
• 9 Bullets Radio has rebooted, and I'm super enjoying the first new episode.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design Space & Astronomy Current Events Guns ]

Yes, the 3 in "Promotions" are also "you unsubscribed" emails. Several Amazon new book announcements for the same author today were what prompted me to go clean out my list, but... Someone didn't think this through.

[ related topics: Books Photography Invention and Design ]

Sure, you can talk about Twitter has led to a resurgence of Nazis, and Facebook is instrumental in the dissemination of fake news, propaganda, and medical disinformation, but have you ever read Nextdoor?

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Today in victim blaming: Out-of-control car jumps Brooklyn sidewalk, kills 10-year-old boy. I mean, let's start with giving agency of the car, but then:

The 59-year-old driver of a Lexus SUV lost control, jumped the sidewalk at Avenue L and struck 10-year-old Enzo Farachio, who was walking on the sidewalk.

Police believe Farachio was looking at his phone and did not see the vehicle coming.

Because, of course, we expect that people on the sidewalk should be alert for any drivers that might lose control of their cars, jump the curb, and run them down. This is completely normal, right?

[ related topics: Humor Law Enforcement Automobiles New York ]

"Nature To Go"...

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

Science! Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work.

Highlights

• An ethnographic account states an Inuit man made a knife from his own frozen feces.
• We experimentally tested knives manufactured from frozen human feces.
• Knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.102002

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Television ]

How Free Eyeglasses Are Boosting Test Scores in Baltimore

Joule — Generating Light from Darkness Aaswath P. Raman, Wei Li, Shanhui Fan

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.08.009

... In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a simple, low-cost way of generating electricity at night based on a thermoelectric module that generates enough electricity to passively power a light emitting diode (LED) at night. This system is entirely passive, i.e., with no active power input, and is constructed in a low-cost modular fashion. We characterize the system’s performance under a clear night sky under varying loads. We then show that the system’s performance can be effectively modeled using knowledge of the thermoelectric module’s properties, the air temperature, and the atmospheric properties in the mid-infrared window where the sky is transparent. Finally, we show that the electricity generated is enough to power a LED—thus, we generate light from darkness.

This $30 Device Turns the Cold of Outer Space Into Renewable Energy

[ related topics: Cool Science Theater & Plays Space & Astronomy Fashion ]

Whoah: Getting "your computer is infected" scammy ad from the NASDAQ web site. In case you wondered how deep the rot and incompetence went...

[ related topics: Law Economics ]

Review Meta: Amazon’s Choice badge given to product with 1000’s of Incentivized, Hijacked and Deleted reviews. Or why you really really really can no longer trust Amazon reviews.

[ related topics: Books Weblogs ]

British Journal of Sports Medicine: Dietary fat guidelines have no evidence base: where next for public health nutritional advice?

Conclusions Dietary fat guidelines have prevailed for almost 40 years. The evidence base at the time of their introduction has been examined for the first time and found lacking. Evidence currently available provides no additional support. Public health opinion differed when the guidelines were introduced. Opposition to the guidelines is becoming more strident. Substantial increases in diet-related illness over the past four decades, particularly obesity and type 2 diabetes, indicate that a review of dietary advice is warranted.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2016-096734

[ related topics: Health History ]

Lovers of Modena skeletons holding hands were both men:

Some of the suggestions for the link between the two skeletons are that they are siblings, cousins or soldiers who died together in battle, study author Federico Lugli told Italy's Rai news site (in Italian).

Or maybe that they were "just roommates"? Really, in 2019 we can't imagine that maybe homosexuality isn't a modern invention?

[ related topics: Current Events Journalism and Media Monty Python ]

The children of donor H898. Large cluster of children of autism appear to have a single sperm donor father. This not only opens up lots of questions about the ethics of the processes of fertility treatments, it's giving a lot of data for people searching for heritable sources of autism.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Health Ethics ]

It's never too late to start exercising, new study shows

"Our study clearly shows that it doesn't matter if you haven't been a regular exerciser throughout your life, you can still derive benefit from exercise whenever you start," says lead researcher, Dr Leigh Breen. "Obviously a long term commitment to good health and exercise is the best approach to achieve whole-body health, but even starting later on in life will help delay age-related frailty and muscle weakness.

Frontiers in Physiology: Comparable Rates of Integrated Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Between Endurance-Trained Master Athletes and Untrained Older Individuals

Conclusion: While our sample size is limited, these data suggest that rested-state and RE-induced iMyoPS are indistinguishable between MA [Master Athletes] and OC [Older Controls]. Importantly, the OC retain a capacity for RE-induced stimulation of skeletal muscle remodeling.

https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.01084

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health Invention and Design Television ]

Casey Viner, who solicited a 'swatting' call that lead to a death, gets 15 months in prison

On the one hand: good. On the other hand: what's happening to reform the processes and procedures of the police to fix that a random person could use them to kill someone?

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Exclusive: Russia carried out a 'stunning' breach of FBI communications system, escalating the spy game on U.S. soil Zach Dorfman, Jenna McLaughlin and Sean D. Naylor, Reporters, Yahoo News

Something to think about next time someone suggests that communications should be able to be read by US law enforcement or intelligence communities...

[ related topics: Games Current Events Law Enforcement Community ]

Saved 'cause I think this'd be fascinating to watch: The Ken Burns documentary on Country Music.

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Music Movies Pyrotechnics ]

Saved for future watching: Running Up Mountains at Age 97 (youTube):

For the Love of Mary, from Sharptail Media and Little Bear Creative, tells the story of 97-year-old Pennsylvanian runner George Etzweiler. Every year, he summits New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, the Northeast’s highest peak at 6,289 feet. And every year, it gets just a little bit harder.

Runner's World: At 99 Years Old, George Etzweiler Can't Stop Running

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design Journalism and Media Sports ]

NYT has gone full-on click-bait. Yesterday it was excusing Kavanaugh's alleged behavior (some of the story was later retracted) with "Having a penis thrust in your face at a drunken dorm party may seem like harmless fun" (more), today it's... well... more than a little headline editorial about the potential (but, IMHO, unlikely) impacts of rent control:

If we're gonna go with editorializing in headlines, we could go for truth: Maybe something like "California passes rent control measure 'cause fucking over young people with Prop 13 wasn't enough"?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Photography Sexual Culture Invention and Design California Culture ]

FDA takes major step toward approving first peanut allergy treatment

Palforzia works essentially by exposing children to controlled dosages of peanut protein until they've reached a maintenance level. The company says in documents filed ahead of Friday's meeting with the advisory committee that the treatment is a powder mixed once each day with certain foods like apple sauce, yogurt and pudding.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Children and growing up Health Heinlein ]

File under "not sketch at all" #WeBuyGols #EmptyStorefront

[ related topics: Photography ]

A common point of discussion whenever software developers get together is AI. The field is exploding, there are some tremendous things happening in computer vision, but there's also a lot of substituting "machine learning" for bothering to figure out polynomial equations analytically.

And, of course, there's the big problem of "solving the problem set in front of it". There's a large list of "unexpected results leading to people realizing they've been posing the question wrong"

But I think one of the more interesting things is using insights from what we're learning about machine learning and artificial intelligence to examine the functions by which we've been teaching humans...

AI pokes another hole in standardized testing

[ related topics: Software Engineering Community Education Artificial Intelligence ]

Cerebras "Wafer Scale Engine" (WSE) — 400k cores, 1.2T transistors, on one big piece of silicon, they deal with failure rates by just not using those cores. For big parallel AI sorts of applications.

[ related topics: Machinery Artificial Intelligence ]

Uh, nothing at all weird about the economic sense this makes, hey?

original tweet

[ related topics: Photography Economics ]

Militant "Less Parking, More Pianos" Pedestrian @transbay:

On this day 160 years ago, Joshua Norton published an official proclamation declaring himself Emperor of these United States. #TheMoreYouKnow

A Twitter thread in which Heather Corinna talks about framing rape as sex, in the context of this headline: 'Tip Of The Iceberg' — 1 In 16 Women Reports First Sexual Experience As Rape

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Health ]

I have questi... ... ideas.

[ related topics: Photography ]

The National Archives: American Conversation: Cokie Roberts on Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation (PDF):

After the War of 1812, Dolley Madison had worked with the women in Washington to establish an orphans' asylum because there had been many orphans left by the British invasion and so Louisa goes to this meeting of the orphan asylum trustees and is told that they're soon going to need more space because "Congress had left many females in such difficulties as to make it probable they would beg our assistance" and Louisa says, "What are you talking about?" and the answer comes back from the trustee "The session had been very long. The fathers of the nation had left 40 cases to be provided for by the public and our institution was the most likely to be called upon to maintain this illicit progeny." There were 40 pregnant women left behind as Congress goes home to its wives and Louisa Adams is writing these letters to old John Adams, who's home in Quincy. Abigail had died by this time, and she's trying to amuse him and so she discovers this shocking fact. Then she says to him, "I recommended a petition to Congress' next session for that great and moral body to establish a foundling institution and should certainly move that the two additional dollars a day which they have given themselves as an increase in pay may be appropriated as a fund toward the support of the institution.

Susan Kitchens tweets the page number from the book.

[ related topics: Politics Books Ethics History Space & Astronomy Writing Archival Marriage ]

Trump officials tour unused FAA facility in California in search for place to relocate homeless people

Senior administration officials said that forcing people into new facilities was not under consideration, with one official telling The Washington Post: “We’re not rounding people up or anything yet. You guys in the media get too ahead of yourselves.”

[ related topics: Invention and Design Journalism and Media California Culture ]

A Sheriff Allegedly Tried To Have His Deputy Killed To Cover Up A Racist Recording

Granville County Sheriff Brindell Wilkins allegedly told a man "the only way you gonna stop him is kill him."

Sheriff helped plot his own deputy’s killing over ‘racially offensive’ tape, prosecutors say

Wilkins has been sheriff of the small county in northern North Carolina, where the biggest town is home to about 8,400 people, since 2009 and was most recently reelected in 2018. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman, who brought the charges, told the News & Observer that Wilkins is still the sheriff.

“Technically,” the prosecutor said, “he can continue to serve if he chooses to until convicted.”

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Political Correctness Law Current Events ]

RT Joanna Hardy @Joanna__Hardy:

As the country is gripped by the Supreme Court - a light guide (ahem) to some barrister phrases:

“If my learned friend is right...” = My learned friend is wrong.

“I’ve just noticed the time” = I am hungry. Are you hungry?

“I won’t read it aloud” = It’s really quite long.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Douglas Adams ]

The PBS/Ken Burns history of country music.

But I'm told that Cocaine and Rhinestones is a way way better history of country music.

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Drugs Music Pyrotechnics ]

RT @AndyEyeballs:

Last night I led a consent workshop at an org for LGBTQ elders, and I started by asking them to shout out their answers to "what is sex for?" And two old ladies sitting near each other both yelled "pleasure" in unison and then one turned to the other and said "what's your name?"

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

‘This Is Not the Way Everybody Behaves.’ How Adam Neumann’s Over-the-Top Style Built WeWork.

A few weeks after Mr. Neumann fired 7% of the staff in 2016, he somberly addressed the issue at an evening all-hands meeting at headquarters, telling attendees the move was tough but necessary to cut costs, and the company would be better because of it.

Then employees carrying trays of plastic shot glasses filled with tequila came into the room, followed by toasts and drinks.

Soon after, Darryl McDaniels of hip-hop group Run-DMC entered the room, embraced Mr. Neumann and played a set for the staff. Workers danced to the 1980s hit “It’s Tricky” as the tequila trays made more rounds; some others, still focused on the firings, say they were stunned and confused.

Via a tweet from Tom Gara @tomgara.

I hope when the "We" family of companies goes down, it takes a hell of a lot of the funders of this debacle down with it. It won't, of course, we have a financial system that rewards the wrong things, but one can dream.

[ related topics: Sociology Consumerism and advertising Work, productivity and environment ]

Penry Park has deterrence against the pool players

[ related topics: Photography ]

Posted for the headline: Navy Confirms UFO Videos Posted by Blink 182 Rocker Are Real and Should Not Have Been Released

According to Vice’s Motherboard, Navy spokesman Joseph Gradisher has confirmed that three videos posted to the To the Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences (TTSA)— the organization founded by Blink 182 rocker Tom DeLonge in 2015 to pursue research into UFOs and extraterrestrial life — do indeed show “unidentified aerial phenomena.”

Updated for the sanity: Are the Navy UFOs "Real," or just in the Low Information Zone?

[ related topics: Current Events Conspiracy ]

This Company Built a Private Surveillance Network. We Tracked Someone With It

Repo men are passively scanning and uploading the locations of every car they drive by into DRN [Digital Recognition Network], a surveillance database of 9 billion license plate scans accessible by private investigators.

[ related topics: broadband Automobiles Databases ]

A thread on "ruined lives": RT Nicole Bedera @NBedera

In light of Harvey Weinstein's life being "ruined," I have more to say on this rhetoric around rape allegations "ruining lives." And to do that, I want to use the example of one rapist in my research--we'll call him Justin.

From the department of "don't do the crime, if you can't do the time": Rudy Giuliani says he's afraid his epitaph will say he 'lied for Trump'

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics ]

Truck Carrying Gaming Dice Spills Onto Highway, Rolls A Perfect 756,000.

Considering the average roll of two six-sided dice is around seven, and approximately 216,000 dice were rolled, Trivium estimates the roll totaled 756,000. The truck was undamaged, having made its saving throw.

[ related topics: Games Machinery ]

538: The Christian Right Is Helping Drive Liberals Away From Religion.

[ related topics: Religion moron ]

Crash Course: How Boeing's managerial revolution created the 737 MAX disasters

Indeed, most of Boeing’s response to the MAX disasters has involved disseminating a kind of misinformation and doubt that makes the crashes look more complex than they really are. First Boeing issued, then instructed the FAA to circulate, a terse directive to the aviation community essentially copying-and-pasting the 737 flight manual’s instructions for handling a runaway stabilizer—a rare (but terrifying, and well-understood) situation in which the plane’s horizontal stabilizer doesn’t respond to a pilot’s commands. Then, when the airlines informed pilots about MCAS, they dispatched executives to talk pilots off the ledge about the deadly software—explaining, in the words of a Boeing vice president Mike Sinnett to the American Airlines pilots’ union, that Boeing simply didn’t want to “overload the crews with information that’s unnecessary.” ...

Contrast to the Boeing apologia that The New York Times published yesterday, which feels particularly disingenuous because the Ethiopian pilots had followed the Boeing recommended procedures for the misbehaving MCAS.

[ related topics: Music Cool Science Invention and Design Aviation Software Engineering Current Events Community New York Woodworking ]

The University of Texas’s Secret Strategy to Keep Out Black Students

The committee went on to observe that if the 2,700-person freshman class was admitted according to state population proportions, 300 would be black. And it noted that white UT freshmen had significantly higher aptitude-test scores than incoming freshmen at three Texas black colleges. A standardized-test cutoff “point of 72 would eliminate about 10% of UT freshmen and about 74% of Negroes,” the committee stated in a footnote. “Assuming the distributions are representative, this cutting point would tend to result in a maximum of 70 Negroes in a class of 2,700.”

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Education Race ]

When the Sheriff's Deputies are saying that the Sheriff's department is run by gang members... East LA Sheriff's Deputies File Suit Claiming Harassment, Violence By 'Banditos' Clique.

A number of the allegations in the suit repeat assertions made in legal claims filed in March and May, including the charge that the Banditos named as defendants in the lawsuit attacked fellow deputies at a September 2018 off-duty party, leaving two unconscious and sending them to the hospital.

Got asked to send a message to a particularly vocal Nextdoor user, gonna toss my message in the comments for future retrieval...

Two squares in Petaluma tonight! I had to dance in one of them, but I love the energy of our new dancers (and our existing dancers), and am overjoyed that we're growing!

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

Saturday, September 28th, Petaluma is hosting both the Craft Beer Festival, and RockSoberFest. Head-to-head festival throwdown!

[ related topics: Beer ]

When they make you drive up 8 stories to charge your car.

[ related topics: Photography Automobiles ]

RT Chuck Tingle @ChuckTingle:

happy bi visibility day YOUR TROT IS VALID if someone tells you its not they are just riled you get to kiss more ways than them

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Oh snap: Accenture Statement of Work Wins Hugo Award For Science Fiction

Martin Fitzwater, President of the Hugo Awards, had this to say. “The best science fiction captures what is possible but not currently achievable and makes the reader suspend disbelief long enough to feel like they are really living in a world where these things are indeed possible. This SOW checks all of those boxes. It’s a riveting tale of one company’s journey to utilize Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, Cloud technologies, python, data science and blockchain to achieve business value, mostly for Accenture. Its powerful prose has its executive readership literally on the edge of their seats, eager to sign a Purchase Order immediately in order to be one with this fantasy world. Truthfully, we debated whether this rightly belonged in the Fantasy category because there are indeed elements of magic in there. However, the lack of dragons, swords or castles really tipped it in favor of science fiction.”

[ related topics: Andersen/Accenture Erotic Consumerism and advertising Work, productivity and environment Monty Python Education Artificial Intelligence Clowns Python ]

While the Barr-Pence-Trump-Giuliani circular firing squad is implicating each other and all sorts of bystanders in Washington, a reminder that there's more than just a corrupt President at play here...

U.S. invokes state secrets privilege to block American journalist’s challenge to alleged spot on drone ‘kill list’

[ related topics: Law Journalism and Media ]

Oh, good, it wasn't just VW... sigh. Daimler fined nearly $1 billion for selling cars that cheated emissions tests

Germany’s motor authority found that some 280,000 Mercedes-Benz C-class and E-class vehicles had been outfitted with software that made them look cleaner than they were during testing, similar to the grift that Volkswagen had pulled (though on a smaller scale). That led to a wider recall of some 700,000 affected vehicles around the world last year. Daimler also had to recall 60,000 GLK SUVs for the same issue earlier this year. The extent of Daimler’s cheating is still unknown, as an investigation by the US Department of Justice and a class action lawsuit in New Jersey are still ongoing.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Software Engineering Law Enforcement Automobiles ]

You know what? Fuck it, maybe it is time to build a wall to keep [checks notes] people from flyover country out of California: Missouri man charged with flying to Bay Area and setting Milpitas grass fires

Arson suspect Freddie Graham, 68, was arrested while dropping off rental car at San Jose airport on his way out of town, investigators say

[ related topics: Aviation Bay Area California Culture Automobiles ]

These Moms Are Mad That Instagram Keeps Deleting Topless Photos Of Their Long-Haired Sons

"Dear Instagram, I'm a boy. I just have long hair. Quit deleting my pictures!"

[ related topics: Photography ]

Stanford researchers find lead in turmeric

Some spice processors in Bangladesh use an industrial lead chromate pigment to imbue turmeric with a bright yellow color prized for curries and other traditional dishes, elevating blood lead levels in Bangladeshis.

Turmeric means “yellow” in Bengali: Lead chromate pigments added to turmeric threaten public health across Bangladesh. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2019.108722

But that search led me to: CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) : Lead in Spices, Herbal Remedies and Ceremonial Powders, Sampled From Home Investigations for Children with Elevated Blood Levels — North Carolina 2011-2018, and holy shit that's a lot of lead flying about...

[ related topics: Children and growing up Health Aviation Current Events Education ]

How a D.C. News Site Amplified Dubious Ukraine Claims

Inside the story of how the Hill become part of the Trump whistleblower scandal.

[ related topics: History Current Events ]

NBC News: Tests show bootleg marijuana vapes tainted with hydrogen cyanide

Of the three purchased from legal dispensaries in California, the CannaSafe testing company found no heavy metals, pesticides or residual solvents like Vitamin E.

But 13 out of the other 15 samples from black market THC cartridges were found to contain Vitamin E.

CannaSafe also tested 10 of the unregulated cartridges for pesticides. All 10 tested positive.

The products all contained myclobutanil, a fungicide that can transform into hydrogen cyanide when burned.

[ related topics: Drugs Health Law Current Events California Culture Economics ]