Flutterby™! From 2020-01-01 to 2020-01-31

Great tits are evolving longer peckers, because of bird feeders

Researchers studied beak lengths of great tits in the U.K., where bird feeders are popular, and in the Netherlands, where they are not. They also tracked the location of tagged tits to determine how much time they spent at bird feeders. The scientists also have 70 years' worth of historical data on great tits and could discern that their beak lengths are changing with time. The study was published today in the journal Science.

[ related topics: Birds ]

All right, I've gotta learn Rust: Rewriting m4vgalib in Rust:

Now, given my feelings about C++, I want to see how far I can push Rust — specifically, safe Rust. See, despite having written C++ as my day job for many years, I'm aware that most of the common security/reliability bugs we see in software today are a result of flaws in the C and C++ languages. Rust fixes essentially all of these flaws. So I've been keeping an eye on it for a while. More reliable software with less work? Yes please.

[ related topics: Weblogs Bay Area Software Engineering Work, productivity and environment Heinlein ]

Research Institute For Housing America Special Report — Quantified Parking: Comprehensive Parking Inventories for Five U.S. Cities:

The 1.6 million parking spaces in Seattle’s inventory have an estimated value, or a “replacement cost,” of $35.8 billion, which is $118,000 per Seattle household. Jackson is home to over 100,000 parking spaces that would cost $711 million to replace, or $192,000 per household. The per- household share of the parking inventory in Des Moines and Philadelphia is $77,000 and $30,000 respectively. New York’s per-household cost is $6,570, a fraction of that of the other cities.

Via CityLab: Parking Has Eaten American Cities

[ related topics: Invention and Design New York Seattle Real Estate ]

Sonoma County Sheriff's Office — Two deputies injured responding to a domestic violence call.

As they approached the home, the first deputy slowed down and was rear-ended by the second deputy.

What in the Dukes of Hazzard/Smokey and the Bandit is happening in this county?

A deceptively edited video of Joe Biden signals what’s coming

Toward the end, Biden circled back to English common law, and said this:

Folks, this is about changing the culture, our culture, our culture. It’s not imported from some African nation or some Asian nation. It’s our English jurisprudential culture, our European culture, that says it’s all right.

The edited video removes that first sentence and the very last clause, so all you hear is this:

Our culture, our culture. It’s not imported from some African nation or some Asian nation. It’s our English jurisprudential culture, our European culture.

As Daniel Dale pointed out, this is doubly dishonest: It removes both the larger and the immediate context.

Edit: Well, crap, apparently I've got some bugs in the formatting engine. All of that above is nested block quotes.

[ related topics: Sociology California Culture Race Video ]

RT Stephanie Hurlburt @sehurlburt]

At a coffee today

Web developer: Yeah the last work environment I was at wasn’t great but I’m in a better place now

Me: I can relate, I used to work in the game industry

WD: *look of horror* I’m sorry, I didn’t know

Me: I mean it’s fine

WD: *serious* No. No, it’s really not

[ related topics: Games Nature and environment Work, productivity and environment ]

Google shutting down Xiaomi access to Assistant following Nest Hub picking up strangers' camera feeds (Updated)

So-called "smart" security cameras have had some pretty dumb security problems recently, but a recent report regarding a Xiaomi Mijia camera linked to a Google Home is especially disturbing. One Xiaomi Mijia camera owner is getting still images from other random peoples' homes when trying to stream content from his camera to a Google Nest Hub. The images include sills of people sleeping (even an infant in a cradle) inside their own homes. Google has disabled Xiaomi integration for its products entirely in the meantime, while it works out the issue with Xiaomi.

[ related topics: Photography Handicaps & Disabilities ]

Fantastic run-down of the state of cryptocurrencies: Tether: The Story So Far

Some people in the cryptocurrency community expect that, after Bitfinex has convinced the regulators that Crypto Capital Corp was their money launderer and that Crypto Capital Corp owned Fictitious Real Estate Firm, LLC that regulators will give FREF, LLC’s money back to Bitfinex.

Hahahahahahahahaha. Let’s review precedent here to see whether that is a reasonable belief.

[ related topics: Community Cryptography Currency Real Estate ]

Looking for more info on this: Doctors Believe Health Supplement Led to 23-Year-Old’s Acute Liver Failure. The patient is Emily Goss of Amarillo (noted just to help me with my searching):

The 23-year-old credit analyst said she's been healthy all her life, but started taking a women's herbal supplement designed to help support hormonal balance, weight management, complexion and fertility.

For months, she took four pills every day until after Thanksgiving, when she noticed symptoms like abdominal pain, fatigue and the white of her eyes turning yellow.

LiverTox: A New Online Resource for Information on Drug-induced Liver Injury:

The NIDDK’s Liver Disease Research Branch, in collaboration with the National Library of Medicine’s Division of Specialized Information Services, has developed an online resource for information on drug induced liver injury resulting from prescription and over-the-counter drugs as well as from complementary and alternative medicines such as herbals and dietary supplements. Called “LiverTox,” this web-based resource provides up-to-date, accurate, and easily accessible information on the diagnosis, cause, frequency, patterns, and management of liver injury attributable to these agents.

[ related topics: Health Current Events Race ]

Isle of Wight 25' model triceratops left in middle of high street

The dinosaur is part of Mr Simpson's shop garden, where he sells prehistoric gems and fossils.

He said: "It takes about five blokes to move the dinosaur a couple of inches, so it was definitely a concerted effort and drink was probably involved."

[ related topics: Current Events Monty Python Gardening ]

ProPublica: The Family Wanted a Do Not Resuscitate Order. The Doctors Didn’t.

Andy Jurtschenko told his children that he didn’t want to be a burden on them. But after he suffered brain damage during a heart transplant at a New Jersey hospital, his medical team deflected their request for a DNR.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Invention and Design Sociology ]

Introducing BusKill: A Kill Cord for your Laptop. Looks like a really good idea; a simple way to set up a short cord that with a magnetic release, so when your laptop is yanked away from you, it locks. Or wipes. Or whatever. Would have saved Ross Ulbricht all sorts o' pain...

Come to think of it, doing something similar with Bluetooth devices might have some appeal...

No, Graffiti Did Not Appear Overnight in Iran Thanking President Trump

Fox News producer Yonat Friling posted the image to Twitter, claiming that she got it from a protected source. (Friling’s tweet has since been deleted, it’s archived here But in reality, the photo is over a year old (at least) and can be traced back to a highly dubious source.

[ related topics: Photography Current Events ]

Psychology Today: Why Older Women (Cougars) Seek Sex With Younger Men (Cubs)

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Weblogs ]

Just discovered holding down the Option key on the Apple menu, and WiFi and Bluetooth menus, and now I wanna option all the things all the time.

[ related topics: Apple Computer Wireless ]

Black Americans Were Prescribed Opioids Less Frequently Because Of Racial Bias, New Analysis Shows

Doctors are less likely to prescribe narcotics if a patient is black, and new analysis finds this racial bias has saved thousands of lives.

A study published in the journal Epidemiology concludes an estimated 14,000 black Americans would have died from the opioid crisis had they been prescribed the drugs at the same rate as their white counterparts.

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

FAIR: Afghan Papers Inadvertently Document WaPo’s Role in Spreading Official Lies

Gallup: Inside Afghanistan: Nearly Nine in 10 Afghans Are Suffering

Via.

[ related topics: Current Events ]

T.S. Eliot's statement about Emily Hale, annotated:

... When people mentioned TS Eliot, I used to think “great poet, shame about the racism and anti-Semitism,” but now I think “the most tragic OKCupid reviewer of all time, also wrote some poems.” A LEGACY.

[ related topics: Race ]

Air pollution in childhood linked to schizophrenia

The study shows that the higher the level of air pollution, the higher the risk of schizophrenia. For each 10 μg/m3 (concentration of air pollution per cubic metre) increase in the daily average, the risk of schizophrenia increases by approximately twenty per cent. Children who are exposed to an average daily level above 25 μg/m3 have an approx. sixty per cent greater risk of developing schizophrenia compared to those who are exposed to less than 10 μg/m3," explains Senior Researcher Henriette Thisted Horsdal, who is behind the study.

To put these figures into perspective, the lifetime risk of developing schizophrenia is approximately two per cent, which equates to two out of a hundred people developing schizophrenia during their life. For people exposed to the lowest level of air pollution, the lifetime risk is just under two per cent, while the lifetime risk for those exposed to the highest level of air pollution is approx. three per cent.

That 2% to 3% absolute risk number seems kinda huge. When I went looking for the original paper, I found so many different papers suggesting similar things, but this one looks like Association of Childhood Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide and Polygenic Risk Score for Schizophrenia With the Risk of Developing Schizophrenia, JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(11):e1914401. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.14401

[ related topics: Children and growing up Television Archival ]

Aaargh! A few years ago, I configured this Apache server specifically so that it could run letsencrypt. It's been ignored, and now I'm trying to renew my certs and letsencrypt says it can't automatically configure the server. Grrrr..

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source ]

Just in case this attempt at WW3 escalates as it could: Been nice knowing ya'll.

[ related topics: Sociology Law War ]

Greta wants to play so badly and Bagheera is having none of it...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Disclaimer: I have not yet tried this out: Ryan Freebern @rfreebern

Spooky dev environment hack: add

127.0.0.1     xn--9q8h

to /etc/hosts and then all your dev servers can be accessed at http://👻

It's localghost!

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

Wow, Iran seems to be the adults in the room, carefully targeting uninhabited buildings to minimize impact to life: Satellite Photos Reveal Extent Of Damage From Iranian Strike On Air Base In Iraq

Schmerler says it is unclear whether targets on the base were chosen to avoid loss of life. "The buildings we're tallying now seem to be used for storing aircraft," he says. "There are other structures at the air base that would be exclusively for people so maybe they intended to strike sites with equipment over people."

Looking at those pictures, the targeting sure appears to be deliberate.

[ related topics: Photography Aviation Architecture ]

Australia fires: Misleading maps and pictures go viral

If You're Going To Share A Map Of The Australian Bushfires, Please Make Sure It's Correct

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Photography Current Events Monty Python Maps and Mapping ]

Local actress successfully deprograms member of hereditary cult

The Cult of Windsor, which in its current form dates back to 1917, is known for being insular and territorial. Along with documented instances of incest and the grooming of teenage brides, accusations of pedophilia have also recently been leveled against a highly placed member of the organization.

I guess Meghan convinced Harry that it was time to get out before the full extent of Uncle Andy's involvement with Epstein and the Panama Papers became public and the guillotines started chopping.

[ related topics: Sexual Culture Movies ]

Installing air filters in classrooms has surprisingly large educational benefits

That’s what NYU’s Michael Gilraine finds in a new working paper titled “Air Filters, Pollution, and Student Achievement” that looks at the surprising consequences of the Aliso Canyon gas leak in 2015.

The impact of the air filters is strikingly large given what a simple change we’re talking about. The school district didn’t reengineer the school buildings or make dramatic education reforms; they just installed $700 commercially available filters that you could plug into any room in the country. But it’s consistent with a growing literature on the cognitive impact of air pollution, which finds that everyone from chess players to baseball umpires to workers in a pear-packing factory suffer deteriorations in performance when the air is more polluted.

Related: ‘I Simply Cannot Justify Staying Here’: Google Engineer Encourages Workers To Avoid Pittsburgh Over Air Quality Concerns

[ related topics: Children and growing up Invention and Design Theater & Plays Work, productivity and environment Sports Education Architecture Conferences Model Building ]

National Bureau of Economic Research: Bargaining in the Shadow of the Law: Divorce Laws and Family Distress (2003)

Over the past thirty years changes in divorce law have significantly increased access to divorce. The different timing of divorce law reform across states provides a useful quasi-experiment with which to examine the effects of this change. We analyze state panel data to estimate changes in suicide, domestic violence, and spousal murder rates arising from the change in divorce law. Suicide rates are used as a quantifiable measure of wellbeing, albeit one that focuses on the extreme lower tail of the distribution. We find a large, statistically significant, and econometrically robust decline in the number of women committing suicide following the introduction of unilateral divorce. No significant effect is found for men. Domestic violence is analyzed using data on both family conflict resolution and intimate homicide rates. The results indicate a large decline in domestic violence for both men and women in states that adopted unilateral divorce. We find suggestive evidence that unilateral divorce led to a decline in females murdered by their partners, while the data revealed no discernible effects for men murdered. In sum, we find strong evidence that legal institutions have profound real effects on outcomes within families.

[ related topics: History Sociology Law Economics Marriage Government ]

BBC Future: The medications that change who we are

Others have not been so lucky. Over the years, Golomb has collected reports from patients across the United States – tales of broken marriages, destroyed careers, and a surprising number of men who have come unnervingly close to murdering their wives. In almost every case, the symptoms began when they started taking statins, then promptly returned to normal when they stopped; one man repeated this cycle five times before he realised what was going on.

[ related topics: Sociology Law Monty Python Pedal Power Bicycling Marriage ]

A conversation about endocrine disruptors sent me down a rabbit hole. National Institute of Environmental Health Science: Lavender oil linked to early breast growth in girls:

Lavender oil and tea tree oil contain compounds that mimic or oppose the actions of sex hormones and may be considered endocrine disruptors.

Trying to look at the impacts of that vs, say, sous vide cooking with HDPE. In this paper, Most Plastic Products Release Estrogenic Chemicals: A Potential Health Problem That Can Be Solved, it's not quite clear what "detectable levels" means, but it does seem that plastics that haven't been stressed by UV exposure leach fewer...

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Health Food ]

Pretty sure the only possible candidate for the new RWA director is Chuck Tingle.

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

It has happened: Emacs is the runtime environment for the operating system now. systemE — a lightweight systemd replacement written in Emacs lisp.

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

U.S. Funds Program With Free Android Phones For The Poor — But With Permanent Chinese Malware

The affected device is a UMX phone shipped by Assurance Wireless and one of the preinstalled malware, according to MalwareBytes senior analyst Nathan Collier, is the creation of a Chinese entity known as Adups. Though the tool looks and operates as a Wireless Update program, it’s capable of auto-installing apps without any user consent, which it starts doing immediately, according to a MalwareBytes analysis of a device, shared with Forbes ahead of publication. Adups hadn’t responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.

[ related topics: Wireless Software Engineering ]

These Are The Forgotten Sex Workers Of The First World War Who Played An Important Role In Soldiers' Lives

“It is shocking the numbers of men looking to go into brothels before major battles,” she said. “It’s a much deeper thing than we give it credit for. The men thought they were likely to die the next day, the thought you’re never going to have someone touch you nicely again before you die, it must be horrendous.

“Before one of the major offensives, where 80% of men were expected to die, 300 men were lined up outside this one brothel.”

The film is Hollie McNish - War's Whores (YouTube)

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Movies History ]

Gold Star Families Sue Defense Contractors, Alleging They Funded The Taliban

Turning taxpayer dollars into profits by way of funding the enemy.

[ related topics: Space & Astronomy Aviation - Helicopters ]

Detroit homeowners overtaxed $600 million

Detroiter Anna Bolden knew something was wrong with her tax bill after she said she bought her west side brick bungalow in a tax foreclosure auction for $4,800 in 2011. That year her bill was $2,600, with the city taxing her as if the house was worth $57,000.

Here, of course, is the real kicker:

The News’ analysis was developed with input from former officials at the city, county and state levels and uses city data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

It also was only possible after staff at Reveal wrote code that scraped delinquent tax amounts from the county's website, data for which Wayne County Treasurer Eric Sabree wanted to charge The News $235,000.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Privacy Current Events Civil Liberties Real Estate Government ]

There's this technology called TR-069, which your ISP likely uses to be able to look at the configuration information on your home router, especially if you rent or lease your router. They do this for debugging purposes, it's tremendously useful to help figure out what your issues are.

It's always bugged me a little bit, and I've always thought that one should consider networks behind TR-069 enabled routers as essentially public WiFi, with all of the same security concerns and precautions you'd use if you were going to use those same computers and services in your local coffee shop.

To be fair, this probably isn't so much about mass attacks, criminals casting wide nets to catch open security holes have many other juicy targets to attempt that with, as it is about someone interested in a specific target. But in general if you've got a network that has unencrypted traffic, where devices trust each other, you probably want another firewall behind your ISP's router.

And this is particularly annoying if you're trying to set up a network behind crappy CPEs like the Pace modems that don't do ISPv6 very well, and don't have a pass-thru mode...

Anyway, code is at https://github.com/mhils/tr069

The paper is at Watching the Weak Link into Your Home: An Inspection and Monitoring Toolkit for TR-069

[ related topics: Interactive Drama broadband Model Building Woodworking ]

Salon: ABC News had the goods on Jeffrey Epstein years ago — and killed the story

Epstein’s crimes shocked the public, and his arrest, trial and mysterious death were major stories for much of 2019. But last month, leaked footage emerged showing that corporate media knew much about these crimes years previously. Discussing one of his accusers, ABC News anchor Amy Robach was caught on camera lambasting executives at her network for killing her investigations into the sex offender because of Epstein’s connections. The clip was originally leaked to infamous right-wing troll James O’Keefe, who has a long history of producing bogus stories (FAIR.org, 4/1/10, 3/14/11, 12/12/15, 10/21/16), but ABC employees, including Robach herself, have confirmed its authenticity. ...

[ related topics: Quotes Photography Erotic Sexual Culture broadband Current Events Journalism and Media Work, productivity and environment Television Salon magazine Video Gambling ]

This is cool! When I lived in Lagunitas, my neighbor Fon Davis was using an exoskeleton to animate servo driven mecha robots, but I like that this is capturing from more puppet-like interfaces!

This Puppet-Like Contraption Lets You Animate CG Characters In Real Time

Via the always awesome Tara Calishain https://researchbuzz.me/

[ related topics: Robotics Model Building ]

A Dire Shortage of ADD Meds Is Pushing Some Patients to Street Meth

Is this the time to point out that paper about synthesizing the hard to acquire Sudafed from cheap and readily available methamphetamines?

[ related topics: Drugs ]

Apparently the gates around here are kind-of dicks

[ related topics: Photography moron ]

Somebody Snuck A Potato Into CES 2020 To Make A Scathing Point About Useless Smart Gadgets

“This product has way more chance of success than 60% of the startups here,” Baldeck says. “I am skeptical of this idea of ‘connected everything.’ Now it looks like innovation is about putting a chip into any object. I’m not sure the word ‘smart’ makes more sense before the word toothbrush than the word potato.”

[ related topics: Food Conferences ]

Visalia Couple Left Bikes in Yard to Lure Thieves, Beat Them With Bats and Post Videos to YouTube: Police

"In the videos, it appears as if the suspects planted a bicycle in the front yard of their residence, unsecured, and waited for someone to try and steal the bicycle," police said in a written statement.  "Once someone tried to steal the bike, the suspects would rush from the house and assault the individual with a baseball bat."

I can't condone vigilante justice, but... wait, do I have to not condone vigilante justice?

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Law Enforcement Sports Pedal Power Bicycling Real Estate ]

Worth using a Medium read for: How is computer programming different today than 20 years ago? — Sedat Kapanoglu

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

If anything's gonna give DuckDuckGo or Bing that boost, it's Google's new search results...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design ]

In case you're trying to reach me, my phone has apparently died. Email is, as always, bestest.

[ related topics: Law ]

If you read through the memos released in the Boeing 737 Max case, you see things like people bemoaning the fucked up management that involve an extra $5,000 in flight change fees because the project managers are getting delivery dates wrong.

Internal Boeing documents show employees discussing efforts to manipulate regulators scrutinizing the 737 Max

To some extent, pull quotes like "this airplane is designed by clowns, who in turn are supervised by monkeys" are part of the trash talking that go on in any dysfunctional work environment, but reading through the memos as a whole demonstrate a horribly broken management chain, in which people had lost sight of actual costs and actual goals.

Such that when Lion Air recognized the potential challenges that their pilots might face and asked for simulator procedures, a Boeing employee said "Now frigging Lion Air might need a sim to fly the MAX, and maybe because of their own stupidity. I’m scrambling trying to figure out how to unscrew this now!"

Lion Air initially wanted simulator training for 737 MAX pilots, documents show

For instance, to put that $5k in flight change fees that one employee was worried about in perspective, that's people talking about the waste of less than a ten thousandth of the benefits package that the Boeing CEO who created the environment with a cavalier view of safety.

Boeing's fired CEO could walk away with a $60 million golden parachute

[ related topics: Quotes Interactive Drama Nature and environment Aviation Law Current Events Work, productivity and environment Clowns ]

We've seen all the evidence of orgasms and health for men, now it's starting to show up for women: Having less sex linked to earlier menopause

The researchers observed that women, who reported engaging in sexual activity weekly, were 28% less likely to have experienced menopause at any given age than women who engaged in sexual activity less than monthly. Sexual activity includes sexual intercourse, oral sex, sexual touching aand caressing or self-stimulation.

Having less sex linked to earlier menopause

Sexual activity may help delay menopause: Study

Megan Arnot, Ruth Mace. Sexual frequency is associated with age of natural menopause: results from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. Royal Society Open Science, 2020; 7 (1): 191020 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191020

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Health Current Events ]

Go home, @Academia dot edu, you're drunk. "English Eduactaion Department"? Data quality. It's... well, it's not a thing, but it should be.

[ related topics: Photography ]

The Muppets Take Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas by Rebecca Saltzman

We were somewhere east of Fraggle Rock when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like, “I feel a bit light-headed, Miss Piggy. Maybe you should drive.” And suddenly there was a terrible sound around us, and the sky was full of what looked like alien squids going, “Yip yip yip! Uh-huh. Uh-huh,” swooping all around the car, which was going 100 miles per hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming, “Holy Jesus! What are these fucking puppets?”

[ related topics: Religion Drugs Humor Health Automobiles Gambling ]

We've found the illegal immigrants plotting terrorist acts: FBI Arrests 3 Alleged Members Of White Supremacist Group Ahead Of Richmond Rally

The FBI has arrested three alleged members of The Base — which authorities describe as a "racially motivated violent extremist group" — on charges that range from illegal transport of a machine gun to harboring aliens, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Race ]

This is my shocked face: Afghan war plagued by ‘mendacity’ and lies, inspector general tells Congress:

“There’s an odor of mendacity throughout the Afghanistan issue . . . mendacity and hubris,” John F. Sopko said in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The problem is there is a disincentive, really, to tell the truth. We have created an incentive to almost require people to lie.”

[ related topics: Politics History Real Estate ]

Vitamin Treatment For Sepsis Fails In Large Trial

The largest scientific study published to date has now reported its findings. It finds no benefit at all from the "Marik cocktail." It involved more than 200 patients in Australia, New Zealand and Brazil. Results were presented Friday at a meeting in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and were published online Friday in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association.

[ related topics: Health Invention and Design Journalism and Media Heinlein ]

So can Google really not hire competent UX designers, or are there other reasons Google Photos is so inscrutable?

[ related topics: Photography ]

Every generation needs top rediscover dish soap in the fountain on their own.... Helen Putnam Plaza, downtown Petaluma

[ related topics: Photography ]

Oregon Office of Economic Analysis: Fun Friday: More Marijuana Border Effects

Second, even if we expect — and get — border effects, the sales in counties along the Idaho border were much stronger than I anticipated. Obviously recreational marijuana is not legal in Idaho, but even after throwing the data into a rough border tax model that accounts for incomes, number of retailers, tax rates and the like, there remains a huge border effect. Roughly speaking, about 75% of Oregon sales and more like 35% of Washington sales in counties along the Idaho border appear due to the border effect itself and not local socio-economic conditions. Furthermore, and in things you cannot make up, Oregon sales per adult along the Idaho border are 420% the statewide average.

[ related topics: Drugs Interactive Drama Politics Law Heinlein Economics ]

Personal stories of the exodus from Christianity:

Even as the American Christian right maintains its power and influence — despite a recent dust-up with President Trump — its children continue to abandon the fold. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that fewer Americans across the political spectrum are identifying as Christian, and the phenomenon is particularly pronounced among the young.

It's a pitch piece/review for Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church.

[ related topics: Religion Children and growing up Politics Microsoft moron Television ]

Tennessee sheriff's deputy indicted on 44 charges including rape, sexual battery amid ongoing lawsuits

Daniel Wilkey, 26, was indicted on 44 charges stemming from allegations of inappropriate behavior and assault while he was working for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, the Associated Press reports.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events Work, productivity and environment Chattanooga ]

On Friday we went to see The Rise of Skywalker. We were not impressed. I came away with three impressions.

1. When I've taken screenwriting classes, the first thing they say is "write the subtext, then make sure you don't use any of that in your script". The dialog in this film was all on the nose subtext. It's like nobody took the time to actually write the script, they just pulled the dialog out of the first pass treatment and threw up some music video-like visuals behind it.
2. I thought all the cracks about the JJ Abrams lens flare were jokes, but holy shit that was gratuitous.
3. I came away with new appreciation for Harrison Ford as an actor, because he was the one actor who managed to actually sell that hokey-ass dialog. Which was still hokey.

Reinforced my feeling that there hasn't been a Star Wars movie since 1983, although now I definitely don't want to go back and see any of the Star Wars movies because I'm wondering if they were all that bad and it was just that I was young...

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Star Wars Music Movies Invention and Design Space & Astronomy Heinlein Automobiles Video Aviation - Helicopters ]

San Jose: ‘Furries’ pulled assaulter out of vehicle, sat on him

A group of furry bystanders stepped in when they saw man ‘whaling on’ female driver

CNN version of the story

[ related topics: Bay Area Woodworking ]

Harvard School of Public Health: Harvard Injury Control Research Center: Gun Threats and Self-Defense Gun Use

[ related topics: Children and growing up Health Guns ]

2257 comes home to roost, but nobody's gonna care because it only hurts women: Thousands of porn stars' intimate details 'exposed online'

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events Monty Python Sexual Culture - U.S. Code Title 18 Section 2257 ]

Violet Blue on the new morality police: Your online activity is now effectively a social ‘credit score’

The security round-up at https://www.patreon.com/violetblue/ is one I read every line of.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Law Enforcement ]

RT Dan Savage @fakedansavage

If kids got raped by clowns as often as they get raped by preachers it would be against the law to take your kids to the circus, part eleventy billion.

NC Pastor Arrested On 115 Felony Child Sex Charges

[ related topics: Children and growing up Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Clowns ]

"Damn it Valentine, you never plan ahead, you never take the long view, I mean here it is Monday and I'm already thinking of Wednesday... It is Monday right?"

Clearview AI Says Its Facial Recognition Software Identified A Terrorism Suspect. The Cops Say That's Not True. So, yeah, on the one-hand this is a company over-selling its capabilities, on the other hand it's raising questions for me, like what's my Ring footage being used for?

[ related topics: tolkien Software Engineering Law Enforcement Artificial Intelligence ]

Today I learned that \x13 in a string constant does not display in XCode, which makes it just freakin' wonderful to debug why that NSDictionary member wasn't showing up when I JSON encoded it and sent it to JavaScript. How the \x13 got in there is also a mystery.

[ related topics: Cryptography ]

The Racist ICE Detention Center Captain Was Just Fired. We Found 132 More Posts by Him on a Neo-Nazi Site.

VICE News has now identified 132 more previously unreported posts that Frey shared on Iron March, a social network for fascists and neo-Nazis, after exposing several of his posts earlier this month that led to his firing by CoreCivic. This new trove of posts from the Iron March archive, which antifascists leaked online in November, raised even more questions about how someone so angry, with such apparently hateful views, held positions of authority working with vulnerable populations, many of whom were people of color, for so long.

Huh. I hadn't realized that Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) had rebranded as Core Civic. I guess killing those inmates was bad for stock prices.

[ related topics: broadband Invention and Design Current Events Work, productivity and environment Economics ]

Las Vegas to drop the pretense of privacy: Sin City changes famous 'What happens here, stays here' slogan — The Nevada city will replace it with "What happens here, only happens here." Or Branson Missouri, or Palm Springs, or any of a number of other places that have centered some of their tourism economy around shows of that nature...

[ related topics: Privacy Nature and environment Television Gambling Economics ]

Somebody did not hodl.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Sexy at 100, Arianne Clément’s photographs shine a light on sensuality in old age

Paul is 101 years old. The tight embrace of his wife Christine, 88, is endless. Arianne Clément is a 39-year-old Canadian photographer known for her work exploring the hidden universe of beauty, sexuality and desire in old age. She has always pointed her lens at the margins, at those who are invisible and forced to leave this world, often too soon.

[ related topics: Photography Current Events Work, productivity and environment Marriage ]

Via Shadow: Bicycling with a twist. I've kinda casually dabbled with the idea of learning to ride a unicycle...

[ related topics: Sports Education Pedal Power Bicycling ]

First DuckDuckGo result for "Wuhan" this morning is an ad for trip(dot)com: "Wuhan to Beijing Train - Easy Book & Secured Payment"

[ related topics: Books Travel Machinery Trains ]

Nothing like having a piece of Lindt chocolate after sampling some of the single origin chocolates from @raphiochocolate as a harsh reminder that not all chocolates are equal. Worth paying the extra for the Raphio...

[ related topics: Chocolate ]

Washington Post: Internet Culture — TikTok has become the soul of the LGBTQ Internet. Just a TikTok puff piece, but also one of those "as I look to where the next generation is finding their peer group" things.

[ related topics: Sociology California Culture Net Culture ]

Erik Wemple writing in the Washington Post — The Post’s misguided suspension of Felicia Sonmez over Kobe Bryant tweets

Fearing for her safety at home, Sonmez checked into a hotel on Sunday night. In a phone call with Grant, she learned that she was being placed on administrative leave effective immediately. The Post’s concerns with the tweets, Grant had indicated in an email to Sonmez, were that they didn’t “pertain” to the reporter’s “coverage area” and that “your behavior on social media is making it harder for others to do their work as Washington Post journalists.”

Yeah.

<img src="https://www.flutterby.com/imag...other0003/TouchedSoManyLives.jpg" width="250" height="314" alt="Image of Kobe Bryant with the caption: He touched so many lives. Some even with consent."

[ related topics: Photography Writing Journalism and Media Work, productivity and environment Travel ]

Really, JavaScript? Well, if that's how we're gonna play it I'm gonna set up a global state machine to unwind your mouseover bullshit and get my highlights in the right place.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

When we all die from a runaway epidemic, this will be why.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture at Taliesin will close. Hopefully this will have a positive impact on architecture.

[ related topics: Ziffle Children and growing up Architecture Architecture - Frank Lloyd Wright ]

If you're as fascinated as I am by the whole "Old Town Road" phenomenon, and what it means about country music, pop music, and the deconstruction of popular culture, well... Shit just got real.

Doritos® | Monologue Super Bowl Teaser feat. Sam Elliott (YouTube video)

Doritos® | The Cool Ranch feat. Lil Nas X and Sam Elliott (YouTube video)

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music Movies Sociology California Culture Sports Video ]

ProPublica: Catholic Leaders Promised Transparency About Child Abuse. They Haven’t Delivered.

After decades of shielding the identities of accused child abusers from the public, many Catholic leaders are now releasing lists of their names. But the lists are inconsistent, incomplete and omit key details.

Via Metafilter

[ related topics: Religion ]

Health-Records Company Pushed Opioids to Doctors in Secret Deal With Drugmaker:

To doctors opening patients’ electronic records across the U.S., the alert would have looked innocuous enough.

A pop-up would appear, asking about a patient’s level of pain. Then, a drop-down menu would list treatments ranging from a referral to a pain specialist to a prescription for an opioid painkiller.

[ related topics: Health Current Events ]

WGBH: Federal Judge Rules People Can Secretly Record Police In Public Spaces

A federal judge ordered the Boston Police Department and the Suffolk County District Attorney to notify their officers and prosecutors that people have the right to secretly record police, as long as the police are on-duty and in public.

From the court order:

Since 2011, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office (“SCDAO”) has opened at least 11 case files that involve a felony charge under Section 99. These have included charges where the person recorded was a police officer performing her duties in public. During the same period, the Boston Police Department (“BPD”) has applied for a criminal complaint on a Section 99 violation against at least nine individuals for secretly recording police officers performing their duties in public.

[ related topics: Law Current Events Law Enforcement ]

Today in "dude, fucking really?" news: Chattanooga Police Department: Stop leaving your guns in unlocked cars

"If citizens really want to help us out as far as limiting the number of guns off the street be mindful of where you're leaving these firearms," Scruggs said. "If we could just get that portion of the guns off the street, it would be crazy impactful."

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Current Events Law Enforcement Chattanooga Guns ]

4,309-foot-long tunnel in San Diego is longest ever discovered along Southwest border.

Portion of US border wall in California falls over in high winds and lands on Mexican side.

<blcokquote>The National Weather Service reported 37 mph winds in the area Wednesday.

Meanwhile, in another section, Trump’s border wall, vulnerable to flash floods, needs large storm gates left open for months.

[ related topics: Politics Nature and environment moron Current Events California Culture Global Warming ]