Flutterby™! From 2020-07-02 to 2020-07-31

Well, it took a year and a half, and I hope the prosecutor can make it stick, but the killers of Rhogena Nicholas and Dennis Tuttle have finally been charged: 6 former Houston Police Department officers charged with 15 felonies linked to deadly botched raid

"Goines and others could never have preyed on our community the way they did without the participation of their supervisors; every check and balance in place to stop this type of behavior was circumvented," Ogg said. "This was graft and greed at every step in the process, and prosecutors are making their way through the evidence one incident at a time."

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Community ]

RT Simon Vans-Colina @simonvc

To all the people who doubt that TikTok is Chinese government spyware.. I've got a first-hand story to tell you.

1/n

He talks about working for Basho, which made Riak, a database used by Rovio for Angry Birds. And discovering during a drinking session that Rovio was being paid €10m/year by the NSA to not encrypt inter-datacenter traffic.

[ related topics: moron Work, productivity and environment Cryptography Birds Databases ]

Putting it in perspective: RT Mekka *My Mask Protects You* Okereke @mekkaokereke

🤔 When you say that "US citizens can't leave their own country," do you mean because:

1. The state department effectively stopped issuing passports?

Or

2. Borders to 🇲🇽MX and 🇨🇦CA are closed?

Or

3. No countries will take US flights, because we are failing at the pandemic?

[ related topics: Books Aviation ]

I hve been kind of peripherally aware of the whole Instagram thing, but I didn't "get" it. Apparently there was some recent sale of Kylie Jenner's company, and that made obvious some of the economics of it, and the various think pieces that are happening now are helping me understand it a bit. Kylie Jenner Killed Influencer Culture – But She Didn’t Do It Alone

[ related topics: Sociology California Culture Economics ]

Women’s Roller Derby Has a Plan for Covid, and It Kicks Ass:

The return-to-derby ladder has seven tiers, and the activities allowed at each level and the conditions needed to get there are spelled out in great detail. For instance, in order for a league to begin tier 1—in which limited group practices are held, but with no physical contact between players—the following criteria (among others) must be met in the relevant communities: There are no stay-at-home orders or proximity restrictions in place; public congregations of at least 50 people are allowed; and public transportation services are fully functional. Specific epidemiological metrics are also required for each stage of reopening. Tier 1, for example, requires that there be no more than five positive cases per 10,000 people in the local population over a span of 14 days. “We are really trying to look at the science and figure out what the infection rates look like,” Vanstone says. The group has a map with the relevant data on its website, marking out which rungs of the ladder are appropriate for each location.

Women's Flat Track Derby Association Return To Play Plan

[ related topics: Community Maps and Mapping Public Transportation ]

Saved for when I need it: Twitter thread of pictures of Donald Trump with Ghislaine Maxwell

[ related topics: Photography ]

A little article about an 8 day school to learn how to call auctions: Texas Monthly: Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Master Auctioneer?

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sociology California Culture ]

JAMA Internal Medicine: Estimation of Excess Deaths Associated With the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States, March to May 2020 doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.3391

Findings In this cohort study, the number of deaths due to any cause increased by approximately 122 000 from March 1 to May 30, 2020, which is 28% higher than the reported number of COVID-19 deaths.

RT The Oregonian @Oregonian

A group of Oregon State Police troopers appeared to defy Gov. Kate Brown’s statewide mask order while in uniform Wednesday, entering a Corvallis coffee shop without wearing required face coverings, video obtained by @Oregonian shows. (1/10)

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Television Video ]

Owners say police presence following CHOP sweep is hurting business

“People are scared; they’re worried. They fear for their safety; they fear for the safety of people out here, more so with the police presence than with members of CHOP with protesters,” said Kandie Martinez.

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement ]

The Impact of Pretrial Juvenile Detention on 12-Month Recidivism: A Matched Comparison Study

Pretrial detention, the use of detention to ensure youth attend court hearings, makes up 75% of all juvenile detention admissions. Research investigating the impact of detainment on youth outcomes is limited and, when available, does not distinguish between different uses of detention. Consequently, little is known about the effects of detaining youth for this purpose. The current study examines the impact of pretrial detention on more than 46,000 juvenile cases across 32 jurisdictions. Using propensity score matching, analyses found that pretrial detention was associated with a 33% increase in felony recidivism and 11% increase in misdemeanor recidivism within one year, and a small effect for length of stay (1% increased risk per day). The analyses also revealed an interaction effect with prior criminal history indicating that this relationship shifts once a youth has a number of previous criminal filings.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128720926115

Cheap diamond hole saw meets rose quartz (yes, I caulked a tray around it to hold water so it was a wet cut). Hopefull. that's enough to get a 3/8" thread epoxied in to hold it to a door stop.

[ related topics: Photography Flowers Woodworking ]

And now we sand. And sand. But there will be no more winter darkness blues in our living room.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Mississippi election commissioner's social media comment about Black voters causes uproar

"I'm concerned about voter registration in Mississippi," the commissioner wrote. "The blacks are having lots (of) events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved, too."

[ related topics: Current Events Journalism and Media ]

Springfield police detective Florissa Fuentes fired over pro-Black Lives Matter social media post

“I was initially confused, but then I realized they thought I was being anti-cop. I wasn’t,” Fuentes told the news outlet. “I was just supporting my niece’s activism. I had no malicious intent, and I wouldn’t put a target on my own back. I’m out there on the streets every day like everyone else.”

Well, ya know where the Springfield police come down on it.

Via The Hill

[ related topics: Movies Current Events Journalism and Media Law Enforcement ]

Reuters: Special Report: Thousands of U.S. judges who broke laws, oaths remained on the bench

[ related topics: Government ]

We needed some nylons for filter material, but apparently asking the Target greeter "where's the hose at?" is the wrong way to find them. English is weird.

I'm swapping out the living room fan for some serious lights, figured I was safe turning off at the switch because I wired the house and knew my hot and neutral were consistent, forgetting that the fan controller had an always-hot. Anyway, the breaker works.

[ related topics: Bay Area Real Estate ]

For the 4th of July: Frederick Douglass' Descendants Deliver His 'Fourth Of July' Speech https://www.npr.org/2020/07/03...s-read-his-fourth-of-july-speech

[ related topics: Video ]

There will be no "this room isn't bright enough" for our living room this winter... Just need the 10v dimming module to arrive from China.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Pregnant Women Have Received False Results From This DNA Paternity Test — After a decadelong battle, I won a libel suit filed by a Canadian company that has turned an untold number of pregnant women’s lives upside down.

[ related topics: Health ]

Projectile Trajectory of Penguin’s Faeces and Rectal Pressure Revisited

We discuss a trajectory of penguins’ faeces after the powerful shooting due to their strong rectal pressure. Practically, it is important to see how far faeces reach when penguins expel them from higher places. Such information is useful for keepers to avoid the direct hitting of faeces. We estimate the upper bound for the maximum flight distance by solving the Newton’s equation of motion. Our results indicate that the safety zone should be 1.34 meters away from a penguin trying to poop in typical environments. In the presence of the viscous resistance, the grounding time and the flying distance of faeces can be expressed in terms of Lambert W function. Furthermore, we address the penguin’s rectal pressure within the hydrodynamical approximation combining Bernoulli’s theorem and Hagen-Poiseuille equation for viscosity corrections. We found that the calculated rectal pressure is larger than the estimation in the previous work.

[ related topics: Aviation Work, productivity and environment Mathematics ]

RT Alicia @Flailmorpho_

"Cybernetics will destroy your humanity"

"BUDDY THAT'S MY FUCKING GOAL"

New York Department of Financial Services: Superintendent Lacewell announces DFS imposes $150 Million penalty on Deutsche Bank in connection with Bank's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and correspondent relationships with Danske Estonia and FBME bank.

I mean, kinda, yeah, whatever, rich guys gonna throw around a lot of cash to Russian models, but the Consent order (PDF) makes his attorney look like something of a bumbling idiot:

In May 2014, ATTORNEY-1 inquired into how often he could withdraw cash on behalf of Mr. Epstein withouttriggering an alert. The record is unclear as to whether anyone from the Bank ever responded to ATTORNEY-1’s inquiry. RELATIONSHIP COORDINATOR-1 sent an email to the branch manager stating that ATTORNEY-1 “asked how often they could come in to withdraw cash without creating some sort of alert,” and asking “Is it once a week? Twice a week? Once every other week?”The Bank has represented that it has no record of any response.RELATIONSHIP COORDINATOR-1 has since represented that she understood ATTORNEY-1’s inquiry related to ATTORNEY-1’s desire to withdraw more than the $7,500 limit for third-party withdrawals, and not to CTR filing requirements.

I'm not convinced that we should have the whole FinCen reporting requirements, but this "So, like, just how shady can I be without being super shady?" thing is an indicator...

Also in the news today: Google and Deutsche Bank agree to a 10 year alliance on cloud services, and back in 2011, Ghislaine Maxwell attended a Kleiner Perkins VC party.

[ related topics: Invention and Design moron Law New York ]

Fascinating: What happened in Bethel Ohio

In his sermon, Eblin said he’d seen one of Lonnie’s videos and heard people saying that there wasn’t anything wrong with Bethel — that everyone loves everyone. But then he recalled his own research as he talked to people before moving to the town. “It was confirmed by people, even in this church, that Bethel is known for its churches,” he said, “but also for being a racist town.”

“Is that an unfair statement about this town?” he asked his congregation. “Well, that’s its reputation. And if it’s unfounded, then what better way of trying to correct it than saying it’s not who we are? If someone’s trying to go through peacefully and say ‘Black lives matter’ [...] then say ‘yeah, Black lives matter.’ And I hope I matter to you. Because we all matter to the Lord.”

And then the bikers showed up to "protect" the town from the antifa...

[ related topics: Religion Interactive Drama Civil Liberties ]

From yesterday's lunch walk. Guy lounging in the shade in front of the house said I was the fourth person that day to stop and take a picture.

[ related topics: Photography Real Estate ]

Love the subtle colors in this bark.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Greta on the cat tree, relaxing...

[ related topics: Photography ]

Hamilton first act, but it's one guy doing Muppet voices (YouTube audio).

Via MeFi.

[ related topics: Music Movies ]

A good little thread on tolerance and keeping your establishment from becoming a Nazi bar: RT iamragesparkle @IamRageSparkle, Replying to @birdpoems

I was at a shitty crustpunk bar once getting an after-work beer. One of those shitholes where the bartenders clearly hate you. So the bartender and I were ignoring one another when someone sits next to me and he immediately says, "no. get out."

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Beer ]

Really good read: What the police really believe — Inside the distinctive, largely unknown ideology of American policing — and how it justifies racist violence.

Psychological research suggests that white officers are disproportionately likely to demonstrate a personality trait called “social dominance orientation.” Individuals with high levels of this trait tend to believe that existing social hierarchies are not only necessary, but morally justified — that inequalities reflect the way that things actually should be. The concept was originally formulated in the 1990s as a way of explaining why some people are more likely to accept what a group of researchers termed “ideologies that promote or maintain group inequality,” including “the ideology of anti-Black racism.”

[ related topics: Politics Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Law Enforcement Race ]

There's hope for COVID-19 treatment, and some of y'all are gonna live forever. I'm just sayin'. SARS-CoV2 induced respiratory distress: Can cannabinoids be added to anti-viral therapies to reduce lung inflammation? doi:10.1016/j.bbi.2020.04.079

Via https://www.forbes.com/sites/e...mmation-researchers-explain-why/

[ related topics: Theater & Plays ]

Congratulations, US taxpayers are paying for sexual abuse cover-up settlements: U.S. Roman Catholic Church used special exemption from federal rules to gain at least $1.4 billion in taxpayer-backed coronavirus aid, AP analysis shows.

The church’s haul may have reached — or even exceeded — $3.5 billion, making a global religious institution with more than a billion followers among the biggest winners in the U.S. government’s pandemic relief efforts, an Associated Press analysis of federal data released this week found.

[ related topics: Religion Erotic Sexual Culture moron Television ]

Great rundown on masks, with cites: Ask Ethan: What Is The Science Behind Wearing A Mask?

Bicycle Helmets Not Designed For Impacts From Cars, Stresses Leading Maker Giro

[ related topics: Pedal Power Bicycling ]

Just putting this here so I can refer back to it later: Portland Place couple who confronted protesters have a long history of not backing down

The McCloskeys have filed at least two “quiet title” suits asserting squatter’s rights on land they’ve occupied openly and hostilely — their terms — and claimed as their own. In an ongoing suit against Portland Place trustees in 2017, the McCloskeys say they are entitled to a 1,143-square-foot triangle of lawn in front of property that is set aside as common ground in the neighborhood’s indenture.

[ related topics: Current Events Civil Liberties Real Estate ]

RT Wajahat "Wears a Mask Because of a Pandemic" Ali @WajahatAli

How Cancel Culture really works: During my year at CNN, which was a great experience, I was "warned" a total of 3.5 times. Each warning was because some Republicans, who defended Trump's cruelty & abuses, complained about the most innocuous statements. Here's the official list:

[ related topics: Sociology California Culture ]

So there's this pseudonymous extremely prolific author Chuck Tingle who became known for niche gay dinosaur erotica like "Space Raptor Butt Invasion". I aware of his work because it was the punchline to all sorts of Rule 34 internet culture jokes, but a few years ago there was an effort to disrupt the Hugo Awards by nominating one of his works. He promptly announced that he'd be honored if he won, and Zoe Quinn, one of the people most targeted by those who wanted to disrupt the award, would accept for him. And a bunch of us started taking the author of "My Billionaire Triceratops Craves Gay Ass" a little more seriously, and his commentary on various modern culture issues has kinda made him feel like Mr Rogers for grownups.

Anyway, I had never experienced a Tingler (as his books are known), but when he weighed in recently on the whole J.K. Rowling kerfluffle, I figured that the ebook of "Trans Wizard Harriet Porber And The Bad Boy Parasaurolophus: An Adult Romance Novel" would, at worst, be a few bucks tossed towards someone making the world a better place.

I am amused and entertained by the surrealism of anthropomorphic motorcycles and talking dinosaurs and self-aware passages like the following exchange:

“I’m sorry,” he suddenly blurts, noticing my appalled expression. “I’m just written this way.”

“What?” I question, confused.

“It’s a trope in romance,” the dinosaur continues to explain. “The more of an asshole I am in this part of the book, the better the payoff is when you change me later on.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I reply, shaking my head from side to side.

“It’s okay,” the parasaurolophus continues. “Just as long as it’s clear this is fiction. In the real world you should probably just break up with someone who acts like this, or even quit their class.”

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Humor Books Erotic Sexual Culture Space & Astronomy Sociology Work, productivity and environment California Culture Net Culture ]

Native America: A History — Confronting Colonialism and Genocide in Father Serra’s Town

Three of the four middle schools in the Ventura Unified School District–Balboa, DeAnza, and Cabrillo–are named after Spanish explorers of the Pacific. The “Serra Cross” stands above the city in a small park that still bears the scars of the horrifying fires of late 2018. An inscription reads that the cross was “restored September 9, 1912, by the Alice Bartlett Club of San Buenaventura . . . to take the place of the mission cross erected on this spot by Franciscan Missionary Padre Junipero Serra, 1782.” Another plaque, placed on the same spot in 1982, commemorates the life of Serra “who closed the labor of his useful life with the founding of the Mission” two hundred years before. That mission still stands below the cross, down a winding and twisted road.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Bay Area California Culture Pop Culture Archival ]

The local hospital, the one where the nurses were begging for PPE two or three days after the COVID-19 restrictions started because buffer inventory of basic protective gear was so lax, just sent around a big glossy flyer begging for cash donations. So given that we know that their administrators have squeezed every last ounce of resilience out of the local healthcare system, I just want to put this here. From 2017:

Patrick Fry, CEO of Sutter Health, earned the most [per patient], at $6.88 per patient day. With more than 923,000 patient days at the system, that translated into a salary of roughly $6.35 million.

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

RT The Heritage Foundation quietly received over $5.8 million from a South Korean weapons company.

Then Heritage produced a flood of research defending the legality of the company’s landmines, cluster munitions and killer robots. https://responsiblestatecraft....eign-arms-maker-raises-eyebrows/

The article is at Responsible Statecraft: Pay for play? Heritage’s cozy ties with foreign arms maker raises eyebrows, and at American Conservative: Pay for Play? Heritage’s Cozy Ties With Foreign Weapons Maker Raises Concerns

[ related topics: Robotics Guns ]

"Enrichment activities" interfere with more productive learning and socialization opportunities. Should Children Do More Enrichment Activities? Leveraging Bunching to Correct for Endogeneity

We study the effects of enrichment activities such as reading, homework, and extracurricular lessons on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We take into consideration that children forgo alternative activities, such as play and socializing, in order to spend time on enrichment. Our study controls for selection on unobservables using a novel approach which leverages the fact that many children spend zero hours per week on enrichment activities. At zero enrichment, confounders vary but enrichment does not, which gives us direct information about the effect of confounders on skills. Using time diary data available in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we find that the net effect of enrichment is zero for cognitive skills and negative for non-cognitive skills, which suggests that enrichment may be crowding out more productive activities on the margin. The negative effects on non-cognitive skills are concentrated in higher-income students in high school, consistent with elevated academic competition related to college admissions.

http://dx.doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2020.036

[ related topics: Children and growing up Work, productivity and environment Education ]

I'm shocked, shocked, to learn that the police accounts don't square with the video evidence. Partially blinded by police — Eight people suffered severe eye injuries at protests across the country on May 30. In three instances, video evidence undermines official accounts of what happened.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Video ]

Wow, that's gonna fuck-up attempts to license undocumented immigrants: South Dakota Is Sharing Driver's License Info To Help Find Out Who's A Citizen

Not something we want to hear, but it gives me confidence to hear the CDC director stating the obviousThe CDC Director Just Said the Words No American Wants to Hear Right Now

It's no secret that the current coronavirus situation in the U.S. is not looking good. The country just saw an increase in deaths due to COVID nationwide for the first time since April and the outbreak is spiking in nearly 40 of the country's 50 states. But unfortunately, things could be getting much worse, according to Robert Redfield, MD, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During a live-streamed chat with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on July 14, he said: "I do think the fall and the winter of 2020 and 2021 are going to be the probably one of the most difficult times that we experienced in American public health."

[ related topics: Health Theater & Plays Woodworking ]

Whoopsie: California bars police from using LAPD records in gang database as scandal widens

But, earlier this year, an internal investigation prompted by a complaint uncovered false entries in the system. Last week, three LAPD officers were charged with adding false records. The department announced last month it would suspend the use of CalGang, citing questions about its accuracy and the desire to “avoid any adverse impact on individuals, particularly in communities of color.”

[ related topics: History Law Enforcement California Culture Community Databases ]

Because I know I'm gonna want to find this again, Twitter post of that awesome "they are lucky that what Black people are looking for is equality and not revenge." rant by Kim Latrice Jones.

[ related topics: Political Correctness ]

Apparently some high profile Twitter accounts have been hacked to promote some sort of Bitcoin pyramid scheme scam. Which is pretty fucking meta. Tech Crunch: Many high-profile Twitter accounts simultaneously hacked to spread cryptocurrency scam

[ related topics: moron Beer Cryptography ]

RT Shaun @shaun_vids

the first 'are robots people' legal debate will be when someone shoots a police robot & the police charge them with murder

[ related topics: Robotics Law Law Enforcement ]

Federal Law Enforcement Use Unmarked Vehicles To Grab Protesters Off Portland Street

The Authoritarian Operation in Portland Is Only a Dress Rehearsal

Lawfare: What the Heck Are Federal Law Enforcement Officers Doing in Portland?

Meanwhile, Ed Mullins, the New York Police Department (NYPD) Sergeant's Benevolent Association President appears on Fox News with a QAnon mug on his filing cabinet.

[ related topics: Politics Photography Invention and Design Current Events Law Enforcement New York Home Improvement ]

Breonna Taylor lay untouched for 20 minutes after being fatally shot by police

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Why there is no quest for the historical Mr. Rogers

As with Jesus, accounts of Fred Rogers’s life and work vary widely. Very few among us had access to the real Rogers. We mostly have texts—both visual and verbal. And although the variations among these are worth pondering, not one writer to date has said something like this: Well, we really cannot be moved by Fred Rogers’s life or seek to emulate what he stood for until we can have sure access to the real Fred Rogers behind all of the verbal and visual representations of him.

Hat tip to Tara at ResearchBuzz

[ related topics: Religion Humor tolkien Writing Work, productivity and environment ]

RT 🦕Kory Bing @korybing

Don’t forget that the whole reason these protests have lasted 49 days is because we’re demanding the police stop beating and killing people and facing no consequences and the police are saying “no we really like to beat and kill people”

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Comet Neowise from the Lake Sonoma Dam Overlook

[ related topics: Photography Astronomy ]

Juvenile osprey from the nest at the Lake Sonoma Dam overlook, taken through the telescope eyepiece while we were playing with focus and such

[ related topics: Photography ]

From Antifa to Mothers in Helmets, Diverse Elements Fuel Portland Protests

Protesters have been in the streets for more than 50 consecutive days. Federal agents deployed to Portland have hardened their resolve to stay there.

Via this Twitter thread, that has a little more background on Chris David, the 53 year old ex-Navy guy who was famously seen standing up to Barr's Bullies.

‘They just started whaling on me’: Veteran speaks out after video of federal officers beating him at Portland protests goes viral

“I was enraged simply because I did not think they were taking their oath of office seriously or they were compromising their oath of office,” Mr David told The Independent. “So I actually went down because I wanted to talk to them about it.”

The Lincoln Project: How It Starts (YouTube Video) weighs in on Portland.

https://www.facebook.com/chris...7l6-xfzK3xns&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-y-R

Feds, right-wing media paint Portland as ‘city under siege.’ A tour of town shows otherwise

[ related topics: Movies Current Events Automobiles Video ]

Massachusetts prison labor creates "thin blue line" flags

The Architect Who Built the Flintstone House Explains Its Origin Story. The bright colors and rounded shapes of that house along 280 in Hillsborough on the San Francisco peninsula.

Well, I had this idea of blowing up balloons. I developed a material that was plaster with fiberglass in it. There was this machine that you could spray that on and it would hydrate at the nozzle. So you sprayed (the plaster/fiberglass mix) on these balloons and then let the air out, and you'd have this dome structure. Then I would put the electrical elements, spray it with foam and then put wire and and steel on and then gunite it, like a swimming pool.

[ related topics: Cool Science Bay Area Current Events California Culture Architecture Real Estate ]

The effects of the police retaking the CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle are being felt: Group carrying baseball bats target businesses, injure officers during Seattle demonstrations

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement Sports Seattle ]

What you need to know about the Battle of Portland

[ related topics: Current Events ]

Does the Lincoln Project have a secret agenda? The answer is surprising.

But for the Lincoln Project, this is also a means of rescuing the GOP from itself. This will force it to "actually compete for votes,” Weaver told me, adding that the GOP will be a “better party for the country if everyone participates.”

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Automobiles ]

The New Jersey Shooting Suspect Left a Pro-Trump Paper Trail — In a trove of documents published online, Roy Den Hollander directed misogynistic and racist insults at U.S. District Court Judge Esther Salas, and expressed support for the president.

[ related topics: Politics Invention and Design Law ]

Wish it were better organized by night or something, but the Twitter account Clypian — Student journalists from South Salem High School has some blow-by-blow reporting of the protests in Portland.

• Protesters putting out fires
• The Wall of Moms marching

At least they're summarizing in articles: Wall Of Moms Faces Off With Federal Officers Sunday

[ related topics: Children and growing up Journalism and Media ]

RT Lisha Sterling @lishevita

TIL that prosecutors throughout Washington State once filled amicus briefs in the Supreme Court to say that if they weren't allowed to make up evidence against defendants, they couldn't join.

https://oyez.org/cases/1997/96-792

Kalina v. Fletcher

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Fantastic step by step instruction on how to install Jamulus server on Amazon AWS Lightsail Ubuntu, but is useful for anyone who's installing it on Ubuntu. Like me. At home.

[ related topics: Books Douglas Adams ]

Thread, about Donald Trump, Ghislaine Maxwell, and abuse: Elizabeth C. McLaughlin🩸🦷 @ECMcLaughlin

You know, I don't talk about this very often, but there was this insane man masquerading as a family therapist who groomed me and eventually molested me from 12 on.

When I told my mom the first time he hugged me with what I thought was an erection (because how would I know)...

[ related topics: Sociology ]

“Disturbing And Demoralizing”: DHS Employees Are Worried The Portland Protest Response Is Destroying Their Agency’s Reputation.

Good. Abolish the DHS and return the structure of the sub-agencies to how it was before the whole 9/11 overreactions.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment Civil Liberties ]

RT Andrew Crespo @AndrewMCrespo

Today on TV, the Deputy Director of the federal paramilitary force in #PDX discussed the infamous van video. He described a textbook example of an unconstitutional arrest.

But... he doesn’t seem to know it.

That is a BIG PROBLEM. Let’s unpack this. It’s important.

(thread)

[ related topics: Children and growing up Technology and Culture Television Video ]

Getting animals drunk is an economical way to reduce their stress, improve meat quality

Researchers at the University of Tokyo fed six pigs a standard diet supplemented with shochu distillation remnants, the dried mixture of barley, mold and yeast left over after distilling out the shochu. Pigs fed shochu remnants from age 3 to 6 months had higher amounts of antibodies called IgA in their saliva, indicating that shochu remnants kept the pigs healthier than the standard diet. Additionally, pigs fed shochu remnants had lower stress levels than pigs fed the normal diet supplemented with fresh barley, as measured by the amount of cortisol, a common stress hormone, in their saliva.

Distillation remnants of shochu, a traditional Japanese liquor, improve pork meat quality by reducing stress https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.126488

[ related topics: Current Events Beer Education Model Building ]

Philadelphia DA Promises to Criminally Charge Trump’s DHS Troops if They ‘Kidnap’ Protesters

“My dad volunteered and served in World War II to fight fascism, like most of my uncles, so we would not have an American president brutalizing and kidnapping Americans for exercising their constitutional rights and trying to make America a better place, which is what patriots do,” the district attorney said in a statement.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama History Law Law Enforcement Civil Liberties ]

AI in e-commerce: wut? #987452 in a series. The recent order was replacement lens glass for my 5 year old cell phone. How they got exhaust parts or a toothed metric V-belt from that...

[ related topics: Wireless Photography Artificial Intelligence ]

Defense Department says it's concerned about law enforcement dressing up in Army uniforms

"We saw this take place back in June, when there were some law enforcement that wore uniforms that make them appear military," Defense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said to reporters, referencing the George Floyd protests throughout the country earlier this year.

"The secretary has a expressed a concern of this within the administration, that we want a system where people can tell the difference," he added.

[ related topics: Drugs Law Enforcement Woodworking ]

RT The British History Podcast @BritishPodcast

Me, after reading LotR: So Saruman realized he was on the losing side and decided to attack the Shire? A strategically unimportant place full of nice people who like to garden, eat, drink, and smoke "pipe weed." That doesn't seem realistic.

Me now: Oh.

[ related topics: tolkien Food Gardening ]

Tweet thread about Giuliani's tweeting of a Somali woman in 1978 who looks like Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and politicians posing with guns.

[ related topics: Guns ]

Really good stuff in here, including links to the State Department's guide on what to do if you're being abducted by hostile forces, the FBI guide on "elicitation", garnering information from your captors to assist in future prosecution, ways to leave evidence so that people can follow your trail and find you.

And, as the State Department advises: “Avoid making provocative remarks to your abductors. As noted, they may be unstable individuals who react irrationally.”

This is a good time for "Am I being detained? Am I free to go? I am invoking my right to remain silent." And if you repeat that over and over again you can probably piss them off good and hard. Although, see above about unstable individuals acting irrationally.

The Stranger: What to Do If You're Kidnapped by the Army While Protesting

Also:

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Law Enforcement Douglas Adams ]

Canadian Court Strikes Down Safe Third Country Agreement with United States

The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) applauds today’s historic decision from the Federal Court of Canada, striking down the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the United States. The decision from Justice Anne Marie McDonald found the agreement to be unconstitutional, holding that it violates the guarantee in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms of the “rights to life, liberty and security of the person[.]” Under the STCA, which was originally implemented in 2004, asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Canada land border are, with limited exceptions, denied the opportunity to apply for protection in Canada and instead summarily returned to the United States, where they are held in immigration detention while they pursue their claims.

Justice McDonald ruled today that the United States’ practice of imprisoning asylum seekers constitutes a deprivation of the right to liberty. She also found that the often squalid and unsafe conditions in U.S. immigration detention centers violate asylum seekers’ right to security under the Canadian Charter. Justice McDonald specifically cited to evidence regarding the U.S. government’s detention of asylum seekers in freezing holding cells, use of solitary confinement, and failure to ensure adequate and timely access to medical care. In addition, Justice McDonald held that detention itself impedes the ability of asylum seekers to obtain legal counsel, increasing their risk of being wrongly denied protection and returned to persecution.

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A friend asked yesterday: Ladies/femmes/nbs: What's the most innocuous thing you've ever done that a man reacted to by calling you a "fucking bitch?"

The responses were enlightening, and disturbing.

This is a must-watch. All the way through. With concentration on every word.

CSPAN Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York, 14th District, Bronx, Queens) response to Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL) remarks

More:

Ocasio-Cortez slams Yoho's explanation of foul-mouthed confrontation

Metafilter discussion & links

CNN has Yoho's non-apology, with commentary: This Florida Republican just delivered a master class in how *not* to apologize

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Huh. Turns out there has been an "antifa" terrorist attack. Of sorts.

NPR: 'I Am Antifa': One Activist's Violent Death Became A Symbol For The Right And Left

Music of the morning:

The Sound of Silence on harp (blooper), notable for what's happening in the background of the video... (Via MeFi)

岳人-TAKETO- — Jon Gomm - Ain't Nobody (Chaka Khan) スラム奏法で弾いてみた　 Guitar Cover (Via Jon Gomm on Twitter)

[ related topics: Music Movies Video ]

DHS threatens Netflix filmmakers to keep damning footage from airing before the election: report

On Thursday, The New York Times reported that a pair of Netflix filmmakers shooting a behind-the-scenes documentary about President Donald Trump’s immigration policy were threatened by federal officials, ordered to delete footage unflattering to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Officers, and told to delay release of the documentary until after the 2020 election.

[ related topics: Invention and Design New York ]

The worst-case scenario — Converging in a tense section of Huntsville: A white police officer fresh from de-escalation training, a troubled black woman with a gun, and a crowd with cellphones ready to record

[ related topics: Health Law Law Enforcement Guns Race ]

RT RUTH BUZZI @Ruth_A_Buzzi

I'm home until Marvin Gaye figures out what's going on.

That thing where I see someone post a speed test where they're happy with their Internet connection (42Mbps down, 4.something up), and a month ago I would totally have been happy with that. Thank you, Sonic Fiber for 20+x more down and 200+x more up!

[ related topics: Net Culture ]

Okay, it's one thing to know how many "I know"s Bill Withers sings before "hey I ought to leave the young thing alone", but it's quite another to know which "knows" are A, which are E, and which are C.

Loving this Twitter thread: Heir to the Throne of the Kingdom of Idiots @NomeDaBarbarian

You know how, in your foreign language classes, you would always flip through the dictionary to find the rude words?

This is going to be kinda like that but for biology.

You requested it, here it is. My name is Nome, and I'm here today to talk to you about weird animal fucking.

[ related topics: Alaska ]

A cautionary tale: Chris Short: The AWS bill heard around the world

‘White, white, white. Then there’s me.' A Black lawyer shares her experiences

I grew up in Prince George’s County in Maryland, which is one of the richest African American communities in the US. So it was definitely a culture shock when I first moved to Boston for law school, at Suffolk University. I remember I took the T for the first time, I think I took it at Park Street, and I could almost see the segregation. The Asians go on the Orange Line, the Black people go on the Red Line, the white people go on the Green Line.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Sociology Law California Culture Community Education Race ]

I'm finding this article fascinating. I grew up in a community that was far removed from the mainstream, and have my own processing and perception issues that impact how I understand and react to other people's emotions. I was long confused that acting didn't seem to be about portraying an emotion, but about performing some cues that we have learned a language to interpret as emotion, but that is really nothing like how people actually experiencing that emotion express it.

This article goes into how that shows up in voice acting. How even in a field where the casting directors deliberately try to not see the people they're casting for a specific role, just to experience how the performer manages to use voice to portray something that they experience as that feeling, end up with an awful lot of white actors pretending to be the other.

The cues and stereotypes that they're looking for are imitations of the thing, rather than the thing, and that gets carried deeper into the culture and builds on itself.

The Atlantic: BoJack Horseman’s Diane Problem Is Now an Industry Problem — High-profile white voice actors are relinquishing their roles as characters of color. But the departures have caused divisions among their peers.

[ related topics: Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Sociology Television California Culture Community Race ]

Listened to the first part of this interview, ordered the book. A lot of good giving language to some of the dog-whistles and not-calls-to-action that ended up being calls to violent action in the political cycle lately.

Author Helio Fred Garcia Takes on Danger of Incendiary Language in Divided Times

Author Helio Fred Garcia speaks with KSFR's MK Mendoza about how incendiary language can condition an audience to accept, condone, and commit violence against a targeted group, rival, or critics. His latest book, Words on Fire is about the power of communication to do great harm, and how civic leaders and engaged citizens can hold leaders accountable to prevent such harm.

[ related topics: Politics Books moron Pyrotechnics Pedal Power Bicycling Dogs ]

Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years

As Trump rails against ‘far-left’ fascism, new database shows leftwing attacks have left far fewer people dead than violence by rightwing extremists

The one death related to an Antifa attack was the attacker himself, shot while engaging in property destruction, mentioned yesterday.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Television Databases Archival ]

Trump wants tax breaks to lure baseball fans back, but incentive could misfire with attendance still barred

“We’re looking at deductions for business expenses, restaurants, baseball games, if hopefully they’re going to open,” Kudlow added last week. “Sightseeing, tourism — we’re looking at tax deductions there, too, to help the economy get going.”

Yeah, let's throw money at baseball, something that's already a net drain on local economies, and travel, when we should be paying people to stay the fuck at home.

Holy shit. Can we get some adults back in the government, please?

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“Your Butt Is Perfect”: Those Austin Police Department Thank-You Cards Are Even Stranger Than You Thought

An APD tweet went viral after internet sleuths theorized that the cards were a police stunt. We got ahold of documents to find the truth.

Twitter thread looking at the believability of a Portland Police Department picture/tweet about alleged Molotov cocktai;s and magazines.

[ related topics: Politics Law Enforcement Net Culture ]

Minneapolis Police: 'Umbrella Man' was a white supremacist trying to incite George Floyd rioting

Police have also connected the 32-year-old man to a widely-publicized incident in Stillwater late last month, in which a Muslim woman was confronted by a group of men wearing white supremacist garb.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Race ]

One of the reasons I'm uncomfortable with my Ring camera devices. I don't know what other purposes the video streams end up used for: San Francisco Police Accessed Business District Camera Network to Spy on Protestors

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RT Spider (they/he) 🔯♿🏳️‍🌈 @vaspider

Me: *just knitting*

My brain: the easiest way to tell that Star Trek was written by white people is they say 'where no one has gone before' but like 90% of the planets they go to are inhabited

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California Governor To Sign Bill Giving Sex Workers Safety In Reporting Crimes

The California State Legislature has passed a new bill which will help sex workers feel safer reporting crimes and carrying condoms, which Gov. Gavin Newsom intends to sign. SB 233, sponsored by State Sen. Scott Wiener, offers immunity to sex workers who report certain crimes and will also prevent the carrying of condoms being used as evidence of sex work.

“No one is safer when sex workers are afraid to report crimes and acts of violence. Silence only helps the perpetrators of those crimes. This legislation will help ensure serious and violent crimes are reported to law enforcement, and I thank the legislature for sending it to my desk,” said Newsom in an official press release.

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement California Culture Gavin Newsom ]

Couple flaunt swastika face masks at southwestern Minnesota Walmart

“If you vote for Biden, you’re going to be living in Nazi Germany,” the woman with the swastika mask told Mueller, as her companion bagged up toilet paper and an enormous canister of cheeseballs. The two were apparently using the masks to protest Minnesota’s mask mandate, which took effect Saturday.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Civil Liberties ]

Supreme Court of Virginia: Crawford v UNITED STEELWORKERS, AFL-CIO 335 S.E.2d 828 (1985)

To call a person a "cocksucker" does not, under the circumstances of this labor dispute, convey the false representation that the individual engaged in sodomy. Nor does calling a person a "motherfucker," under the circumstances of this case, convey the false representation that the person engaged in incest.

[ related topics: Law ]

ProPublica: We Are Tracking What Happens to Police After They Use Force on Protestors

These 68 videos show clear apparent instances of police officers escalating violence during protests. Most departments refused to share details about investigations and discipline or even officers’ names. Here’s what we learned about each case.

[ related topics: Law Law Enforcement Civil Liberties ]

I'm giggling so hard: Sex With Ducks: the Music Video by Garfunkel and Oates

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Perhaps the 'Flirtatious Anal Dildo For Cock Hungry Blonde Slut' Is Just Passionate About Transit

“Any idea what’s going on here? LOL,” a man <span>tweeted</span> Sunday evening. Attached was a video of himself Googling the Waterbury Metro-North station in Connecticut. After the ordinary transit info came the second search result: “Waterbury - Flirtatious Anal Dildo For Cock Hungry Blonde Slut - MTA.”

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture Video Public Transportation ]

Lucky the US didn't assassinate him and install a replacement more friendly to agribusiness: New York Times obituary: Mason Gaffney, Who Argued for Taxing Only Land, Dies at 96

“To some people all taxes are equally terrible,” Professor Gaffney wrote in a 20-page paper summarizing his economic theories. But, he contended, land-value taxes are relatively virtuous and far less intrusive than income taxes.

“Land yields an economic surplus,” he wrote. “It dawns on some as quickly as a bursting tropical daybreak, and on others more like a boreal twilight, that a surplus may be taxed, and that the property tax on land garners that social surplus for the public treasury without impairing any functional private economic incentive. It may, indeed, often sharpen incentives.”

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We Want More Justice For Breonna Taylor Than The System That Killed Her Can Deliver

We want to invite a broader and deeper conception of justice for Breonna Taylor and other survivors and family members harmed by police violence – one rooted in reparations, modeled on Chicago’s recent successful struggle for reparations for survivors and families of people tortured by former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. The reparations framework outlines 5 elements – repair, restoration, acknowledgment, cessation and non-repetition.

[ related topics: Sociology Law Enforcement ]

It started as a noise complaint. It ended in another fatal Phoenix police shooting

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Research Says Violent Cops Cause Violent Protests

That’s one of the findings in “New Directions in Protest Policing,” a 2015 paper that reviews decades upon decades of police history and the conclusions of multiple separate commissions. Police that dress like they’re going to war, who try to control First Amendment expression rather than facilitate it, and who act in arbitrary ways can inflame violence and jeopardize their own safety and that of the public.

[ related topics: Invention and Design History Law Enforcement Civil Liberties ]

I call this "over-thinking a wastebasket lid"

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Well, we know who they consider the enemy: DHS compiled ‘intelligence reports’ on journalists who published leaked documents

“To broadly disseminate an intelligence report, including to numerous state and local law enforcement agencies, about a DHS leak to a reporter strikes me as bizarre,” said Steve Bunnell, who served as the department’s general counsel for three years in the Obama administration. If department officials were concerned about unauthorized disclosures, they should refer the matter to the inspector general or handle it internally, he said.

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RT ThadCulley

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The NYPD unit that snatched a protester off the street has been accosting people for years

The plainclothes NYPD Warrant Squad that “kidnapped” a Black Lives Matter protester, explained.

[ related topics: Privacy ]