Flutterby™! From 2020-08-01 to 2020-08-31

From Humboldt County: Confessions of a California Covid Nurse

A California county’s efforts to stop the spread has also become a battle with the public’s denial. Erica Dykehouse will wait for minds to change.

[ related topics: Health California Culture ]

Watched Fast Color last night. I think this is one that's gonna sneak up on me, kinda like Last Black Man in San Francisco. Both of us were pulled in and think we'd like to see it again (and we don't watch that many movies to start with, let alone again), and we're both still trying to figure out what we thought about it. Lorraine Toussaint and Gugu Mbatha-Raw were both amazing. The camera work brought a heck of a lot to dive into. The scenery is stark and raw.... The trailer tells very little, and the reviews are either bemused that they loved it, or disappointed that it was a superhero movie that wasn't a superhero movie. But, yeah, I want to watch it again.

[ related topics: Photography Movies Bay Area Work, productivity and environment California Culture ]

Another recent project: Bagheera likes to sleep on Charlene's pillow, crowding her, so we made this fold down shelf to put a pillow on and shove him into, for more room on the bed.

[ related topics: Photography Furniture ]

The challenge is: build an outdoor table using that slab of granite and some leftover redwood scrap. I'm going for a small trestle table...

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Furniture Woodworking ]

In case you hand any wonders who they were working for: Maine’s police intelligence center sent reports on activists to corporations

Corporate executives at Avangrid, Hannaford’s, ExxonMobile, Bath Iron Works and other large corporations with connections to Maine were sent regular reports by the state police’s intelligence unit, the Maine Information and Analysis Center (MIAC), tracking Black Lives Matter and anti-CMP corridor activists and including unsubstantiated rumors spread by the extreme right.

[ related topics: Law Work, productivity and environment Law Enforcement ]

Made a router sled to surface this piece of olive that I slabbed out with a chain saw a couple of years ago

[ related topics: Photography Woodworking ]

Still needs sanding and oil, but used up a bunch of scraps, and I think I like how it's shaping up

[ related topics: Photography ]

Morgan Freeman Reads Rep. John Lewis’ Last Words | The Last Word | MSNBC

In a special Last Word, Morgan Freeman reads the words of John Lewis’ final essay, which he requested be published in the New York Times on the day of his funeral: “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.” Aired on 7/30/2020.

[ related topics: Movies Invention and Design Writing New York ]

Replace your social media feeds with the Endless Doom Scroller: https://endlessdoomscroller.com/

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

Al Jazeera: Beirut blast: Tracing the explosives that tore the capital apart

It was forced to dock in Beirut after facing technical problems at sea, according to (PDF) lawyers representing the boat's crew. But Lebanese officials prevented the vessel from sailing, and eventually, it was abandoned by its owners and crew - information partially corroborated by Fleetmon.

• Fleetmon: Beirut port explosion mystery solved? UPDATES: 3 ships disappeared. VIDEO English is not Fleetmon's first language, "sank" is a better term than disappeared.
• The Siberian Times: First pictures emerge of a Russian man whose ammonium nitrate cargo detonated in the port of Beirut
• From 2014: Crew kept hostage on a floating bomb – m/v Rhosus, Beirut

[ related topics: Current Events Boats Machinery ]

Thread: RT acab|blm @jaythenerdkid

reminder to my fellow muslims that eating the rich IS NOT HALAL! we're not allowed to eat scavengers or anything that survives on carrion!

[ related topics: Food ]

Los Angeles Deputy Says Colleagues Are Part of Violent Gang

The allegations against the Compton deputies follow accusations of other gangs in the department — called the Spartans, Regulators, Grim Reapers and Banditos — that also share tattoos and a history of violence, the Times said.

Los Angeles deputy says colleagues are part of violent gang

COMPTON — A violent gang of Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who call themselves “The Executioners” control a patrol station in Compton through force, threats, work slowdowns and acts of revenge against those who speak out, a deputy alleges in a legal claim.

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

This is great: Like a modern hate-driven version of The Music Man, dude goes town to town selling them on the notion of ill-advised ordinances, then gets paid to defend those ordinances in court, loses, moves on to the next town where he manages to get them to enact the ordinance again based on his successes in getting the previous town to do the same.

Kris Kobach’s Lucrative Trail of Courtroom Defeats

For years, the candidate for Kansas governor has defended towns that passed anti-immigration ordinances. The towns have lost big — but Kobach has fared considerably better.

[ related topics: Music ]

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) posts a Twitter thread about Trump administration bungling in the Venezuela coup that kinda says "Democrats are better at overthrowing foreign governments than Republicans", which ... well ... I don't think he wanted to say the subtext quite as clearly as he did, and boy it kinda makes all US foreign policy look horribly incompetent and corrupt.

Dementia on the Retreat in the U.S. and Europe

The risk for a person to develop dementia over a lifetime is now 13 percent lower than it was in 2010. Incidence rates at every age have steadily declined over the past quarter-century. If the trend continues, the paper’s authors note, there will be 15 million fewer people in Europe and the United States with dementia than there are now.

Neurology — Twenty-seven-year time trends in dementia incidence in Europe and the United States — The Alzheimer Cohorts Consortium

Conclusion The incidence rate of dementia in Europe and North America has declined by 13% per decade over the past 25 years, consistently across studies. Incidence is similar for men and women, although declines were somewhat more profound in men. These observations call for sustained efforts to finding the causes for this decline, as well as determining their validity in geographically and ethnically diverse populations.

https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0000000000010022

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Health History Currency Archival ]

Whoah, turns out flooding you with ads for products you already bought isn't a good strategy. Who knew? Wired: Can Killing Cookies Save Journalism?

A Dutch public broadcaster got rid of targeted digital ads—and its revenues went way up.

[ related topics: Journalism and Media ]

Judge, Shielding Cop Via 'Qualified Immunity,' Asks Whether It Belongs In 'Dustbin'

The decision, Clarence Jamison, Plaintiff, v Nick McClendon, In his individual capacity, Defendant — Order Granting Qualified Immunity is well worth reading:

This Court is required to apply the law as stated by the Supreme Court. Under that law, the officer who transformed a short traffic stop into an almost two-hour, life-altering ordeal is entitled to qualified immunity. The officer's motion seeking as much is therefore granted.

But let us not be fooled by legal jargon. Immunity is not exoneration. And the harm in this case to one man sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine.

[ related topics: Law ]

NextDoor: The Musical (YouTube).

[ related topics: Movies ]

Shadow reminded me: Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates

Scientists rename human genes to stop Microsoft Excel from misreading them as dates

Help has arrived, though, in the form of the scientific body in charge of standardizing the names of genes, the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee, or HGNC. This week, the HGNC published new guidelines for gene naming, including for “symbols that affect data handling and retrieval.” From now on, they say, human genes and the proteins they expressed will be named with one eye on Excel’s auto-formatting. That means the symbol MARCH1 has now become MARCHF1, while SEPT1 has become SEPTIN1, and so on. A record of old symbols and names will be stored by HGNC to avoid confusion in the future. </blockquiote>

MeFi thread

[ related topics: Humor Microsoft Nature and environment Invention and Design Bioinformatics moron ]

Georgia student suspended after posting a photo of a crowded school hallway says it was 'good and necessary trouble'

[ related topics: Children and growing up Photography Pop Culture ]

Americans need an AR-15 in case their yard is invaded by 30-50 feral hogs. Germans don't even need clothes: Cheeky boar leaves nudist grunting in laptop chase

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDlM18_lANd/

[ related topics: Nudity Law Current Events Monty Python Clothing Real Estate ]

How a Popular Medical Device Encodes Racial Bias

Pulse oximeters give biased results for people with darker skin. The consequences could be serious.

[ related topics: Nature and environment ]

The Root: A List of Characters in Hamilton Who Also Should've Shot Alexander Hamilton in the Face

Damn it, I've been voting by mail for years (love the leisure of going over the ballot with Google and discussing each issue with Charlene while we vote), and we've been doing pretty good with minimizing our exposure to people and being careful about when we go out and where we go when we do, but...

This makes me want to vote in person.

KQED: Drag Performers Could Run Your California Polling Place in November

[ related topics: California Culture ]

The answer is, of course, a little down in the Twitter thread, that teledildonics is the first step in mass-market telepresence technologies. Porn and sex always drive tech.

But I think that progression (which, of course, glosses over some of the tremendous changes in the individualization capabilities of the various communication mechanisms) is an interesting jumping off point for thinking about how communication enables human interactions, and how sometimes the technology becomes an end in itself rather than being about that communication.

What sort of nuances do we want to communicate that we currently aren't? How are the limitations on Zoom a filter on what gets transmitted, and once we see that it's a continuum between zoom and IRL, what are the limitations of language and the concepts that we know how to express in our relationships.

Anyway, motorized Internet-connected buttplugs are funny.

Bonus: RealTouching from a distance

[ related topics: Photography Erotic Sexual Culture Net Culture Economics ]

Building a an ENTIRE guitar out of GLASS! — Morningstar Glass Guitars

I build glass guitars. Not acrylic, not resin, GLASS!!! I made this video to demonstrate how I build a glass guitar. The headstock, neck, fretboard, and body are all made of glass. I build them by hand using cold-working methods.

[ related topics: Music Movies Work, productivity and environment Video ]

Gonna pair the live edge olive with red oak for a headboard/cabinet sort of thing for the head of the bed that'll use a standing desk mechanism to hide a rise-out bookshelf there.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment Theater & Plays Furniture Home Improvement ]

Tapping out the new foot locations

[ related topics: Photography Invention and Design ]

😈 Just trying to see if I've fixed some Unicodeness

[ related topics: Interactive Drama ]

Realized that I'm not against celebrity gossip, I just want to know about the celebrities who are relevant to my fandom. Like what's this Chuck Tingle / Chris Evans tweet thing?

So there's some uproar over a new song from Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, "WAP". It is explicit. Twitter is weighing in.

RT Laurel Krahn @windowseat

Still unclear on whether the song is about Wireless Access Points or Wireless Application Protocol.

Dr Eleanor Janega @GoingMedieval

You, a degenerate modernist: women do not enjoy sex.

Me, a student of historical sexuality: THERE'S SOME HOES IN THIS HOUSE, THERE'S SOME HOES IN THIS HOUSE, THERE'S SOM

Imagine being so wrapped up in your misogyny that somehow you'd imagine that other people would be as up in arms over women celebrating female pleasure as they are over calls for genocide and enslavement. RT James P. Bradley @BradleyCongress — US House candidate, CA-33

Secondly, while I personally take offense to the lyrics and messaging of this song, I absolutely respect her 1st Amendment right to make it.

Also surprised that twitter doesn’t mind this kind of free speech but has a problem with conservative free speech.

Also, this is why we've gotta work down-ballot too.

[ related topics: Wireless Erotic Sexual Culture Free Speech Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Real Estate ]

Homeland Security details new tools for extracting device data at US borders

The agency says it can now obtain details including your phone's location history, social media information, and photos and videos.

[ related topics: Books Photography Invention and Design Current Events Journalism and Media ]

Work QOTD: "I just deleted xcode finally which helped"

[ related topics: Quotes Work, productivity and environment ]

Content warning: May trigger flashbacks to ISA cards and Doom sessions. Twitter user idspispopd @Bhaal_Spawn has a suggestion for Lego kits: Sound Blaster & 3dfx Voodoo cards

[ related topics: Lego Mindstorms ]

I'm kinda weird in the solutions that we deploy at home because I like to start with systems that own our own data, and that we can get the information into and out of in the original form. We don't have a lot of cloud services, and I'd much rather have a shared drive mount point that gets sync'd to S3 than some OS add-on that does some sort of sharing that I don't understand the semantics of (eg: Google Drive, Dropbox).

As Charlene is going to a Mac, it's a little harder to implement some of this, Macs don't interoperate well (yesterday evening I plugged a USB stick into the home server and used rsync because getting the Mac to mount a USB stick is not a consistent process...), so I'm looking around at what new solutions are...

Anyway, I found this a worthwhile read on different classes of software and how we can think about them:

Local-first software You own your data, in spite of the cloud

Via https://reb00ted.org/quick-notes/20200809-local-first-software/

[ related topics: Invention and Design Software Engineering Macintosh ]

Anki is an application for flash card creation. It came out of this morning's Newbie Caller's video session (this one isn't up yet, will be a little later), but Charlene's needing some flash cards..

[ related topics: Video ]

When you really like the shape of the Bogen tripods knobs, but are sick of trying to find the funky bolt they use because camera stores aren't a thing any more and it's not a standard metric or Imperial size

[ related topics: Photography Fabrication ]

Experian is the Spinal Tap of credit reporting agencies. "Most go to 818 or 839, but his one goes all the way to 844."

RT Owen @problemsdog

Coding tip: to convert code from C to C#, simply put the capo on the first fret on your keyboard and type as normal.

[ related topics: Software Engineering ]

Trying to figure out what the superstructure looks like, 3 sliding doors in the front with panels grain matched to the top olive slab. The whole thing will rise up from the head of the bed with linear actuators to expose the lower shelf.

[ related topics: Photography Furniture ]

The Fast And The Furious (on a budget), told in 20 minutes, with ... modern ... well, I mean, they were shot this year rather than 2001, so that's modern, right? ... special effects.

When Brian (who may or may not be a cop) befriends a group of illegal street racers, he has to choose between filling out his duties (as maybe a cop?) and friendship.

If you only have 48 seconds, The Fast and the Furious (on a budget) Trailer

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Movies ]

From Reddit:

My husband has ruined Hamilton for me

He sang ‘Adam Sandler’ in place of ‘Alexander’ ONCE, and I can’t hear half the songs the same any more.

“When I fantasise at night it’s Adam Sandler’s eyes”

“Congrats again Adam Sandler, smile more”

“Go home, Adam Sandler, that’s an order from your commander”

[ related topics: Marriage ]

The big social media sites are devoting all of this energy to machine learning to filter and sort posts, but all I really want is to never see a post with the phrase "They don't want you to".

[ related topics: Journalism and Media Education ]

Study: Pornography does not cause violent sex crimes

Pornography and Sexual Aggression: Can Meta-Analysis Find a Link? is based on research by Chris Ferguson, a professor of psychology at Stetson University, and Richard Hartley, chair of UTSA’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. The authors conducted meta-analytic research and examined more than 50 correlational, experimental and population studies that explored the association between pornography and sexual aggression during the past 40 years.

So many good pull-quotes:

“During the past few years many states have declared that pornography is a public health crisis,” said Ferguson. “Dr. Hartley and I were curious to see if evidence could support such claims—at least in regard to sexual aggression—or whether politicians were mistaking moral stances for science. Our evidence suggests that policymakers should examine other causes of sexual aggression and that beliefs about pornography may be driven more by methodological mistakes than sound science.”

and

“I hope that Dr. Hartley and I can point out some of the widespread problems in much of the research as well as the culture of this field, whereas some scholars appear to be too quick to try and find evidence for effects,” said Ferguson, who led the study. “We need more preregistered, transparent research and a field that is looking to falsify hypotheses and not entirely in confirmatory mode because it feels morally right.”

And, from the abstract of the paper:

... Population studies suggested that increased availability of pornography is associated with reduced sexual aggression at the population level. ...

[ related topics: Quotes Interactive Drama Erotic Sexual Culture Psychology, Psychiatry and Personality Health Ethics History Sociology Law Enforcement California Culture Education Furniture ]

Enron... uh... what are we up to now, five point oh? Newsom wants probe of California blackouts, as grid officials suspend volatile power trading

[ related topics: Current Events California Culture Personal Lubricant ]

Whorf does not play is one of a series of Star Trek INtakes, Star Trek TNG bloopers edited back into their original scenes. Some LOLs here...

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Movies Star Trek Space & Astronomy Aviation - Helicopters ]

Just got a message asking if we could host friends who may become fire evacuees shortly. Yeah, it's that kind of season. Fingers crossed for the foothills.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Pyrotechnics ]

Layer of smoke

Layer of smoke (with picture)

[ related topics: Photography ]

Allegheny ‘Low profile’ arrest creates firestorm as officials, experts blast Pittsburgh police tactic

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Cartier should not have been taken into custody.

“On Saturday, Pittsburgh Police, directed by the Public Safety director and the mayor, chose to proceed by arrest and criminal complaint on charges that should have been handled via summons,” he said Monday in a statement.

[ related topics: Law Law Enforcement Fashion ]

Just because I know I'm gonna want to find this at some point... life moves pretty fast if you're a fact checker: Factcheck.org: Biden Floats Baseless Election Conspiracy [UPDATE: See our latest story ‘Trump Proves Biden Right on USPS Funding, Mail-In Ballots’], Trump Proves Biden Right on USPS Funding, Mail-In Ballots

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Conspiracy Government ]

The Burl Hunter: Crazy Redwood Burl River/Waterfall Island #rivertable #Riverisland #epoxyrivertable

I'm just starting to get into epoxy pours, there's lots to learn...

[ related topics: Movies Nature and environment ]

Picking Locks with Audio Technology. Get a microphone relatively close to the lock (eg: an exploit on the victim's smartphone, a smart doorbell, or directional mic), and...

Once they have a key-insertion audio file, SpiKey's inference software gets to work filtering the signal to reveal the strong, metallic clicks as key ridges hit the lock's pins [and you can hear those filtered clicks online here]. These clicks are vital to the inference analysis: the time between them allows the SpiKey software to compute the key's inter-ridge distances and what locksmiths call the "bitting depth" of those ridges: basically, how deeply they cut into the key shaft, or where they plateau out. If a key is inserted at a nonconstant speed, the analysis can be ruined, but the software can compensate for small speed variations.

Via Kottke

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Music Software Engineering Current Events Work, productivity and environment ]

It's not just that the subsidies for your local professional sports team cause a regressive drain on the local economy, Professional Sporting Events Increase Seasonal Influenza Mortality in US Cities

Results from a difference-in-differences model applied to data from a sample of US cities that gained new professional sports teams over the period 1962-2016 show that the presence of games in these cities increased local influenza mortality by between 4% and 24%, depending on sport, relative to cities with no professional sports teams and relative to mortality in those cities before a new team arrived. Influenza mortality fell in cities with teams in some years when work stoppages occurred in sports leagues.

http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3628649

[ related topics: Games Invention and Design Work, productivity and environment Economics ]

When your credit union's online case management web site requires Flash for uploading documents.... uh, yeah, thanks, but no, we'll find another way to transfer those PDFs around.

[ related topics: Law ]

A man with some decent Vernier calipers knows what an inch is. A man with two sets of Vernier calipers, a set of digital calipers, and a set of dial calipers, has no idea. Hypothetically. I think I break out the micrometer next...

PNAS: Physician–patient racial concordance and disparities in birthing mortality for newborns

Findings suggest that when Black newborns are cared for by Black physicians, the mortality penalty they suffer, as compared with White infants, is halved.

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1913405117

Via The Cut, which gets the headline totally wrong, I think, because the "3 times" is general mortality without considering the race of the attending physician: Black Newborns Are 3 Times More Likely to Die When Treated by White Doctors, by way of Sensible Endowment.

[ related topics: Race ]

How do Mac people deal with USB sticks? I've been putting them in a Linux box and using rsync, but this can't be normal, right?

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Macintosh ]

Apparently lightning hit one of those trees next to the turning basin. Don't know what happened to the egrets that nest there.

[ related topics: Photography Nature and environment ]

We need a UPS. I have an old APC that needs new batteries. I think I can get gel cells from Electronics+ down in San Rafael, but I'm also wondering if there's an inverter/charger+flooded batteries I can get more locally solution that'd have a longer time between replacements.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Invention and Design Bay Area ]

More indications that the problems with policing are systemic: Pittsburgh City Paper: 99 Problems: Run-in with Jordan Miles wasn't first controversial incident for three 99-car cops — "Unless the police brass begins punishing violators, the department will never be brought under control."

These incidents are important on their own, but also point to systemic concerns about how officers are disciplined. Why were officers who had been criticized for using illegal search practices allowed to patrol in undercover units with less supervision, eventually engaging Miles in one of the most high-profile confrontations with the public in recent years? Were they properly disciplined or retrained when supervisors and citizens raised concerns? Did the discipline escalate?

The city would not make police officials available to comment on those lines of inquiry, but Bryan Campbell, a lawyer for the Pittsburgh police union, says Sisak, Saldutte and Ewing "were believed to be good, proactive officers."

[ related topics: Law Law Enforcement Automobiles Model Building ]

The most nerdly middle-aged thing ever: A week or two ago I splurged on a new Festool TID-18 impact driver. I have previously had Milwaukee and RIGID impact drivers. Building a small deck today. Holy crap did I appreciate that tool.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Woodworking Festool ]

So it appears that Nixle is pretty much relegated non-time sensitive informational messages at this point. Wonder how long before all the agencies in Sonoma County drop them because they provide a false sense of notifications...

Interesting... The Economist article really doesn't do a whole lot more than extrapolate out the Goldman Sachs stuff to per-mask-per-capita, so is probably not worth registering just to read: The Economist — Cloth of gold — Why the economic value of a face mask is $56.14

Goldman Sachs Research — Face Masks and GDP

All via this Twitter thread that quotes extensively.

[ related topics: Quotes Economics ]

I realize I'm just recreating Jarritos, but dang, tamarind pulp and brown sugar makes a super tasty soda....

As the Portland and Salem protest situations are being handled by the police withdrawing and letting the Proud Boys run wild on the BLM protesters, and police in Kenosha Wisconsin shot a man in the back 7 times, here's a Twitter thread by a public defender targeted by police. I don't have particular credibility for this thread aside from the fact that they're followed by two people I do trust, one of whom is a criminal defense attorney who does a lot of public defender work.

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

Visualizing NYPD police misconduct records

[ related topics: Law Enforcement ]

Coronavirus: Teens' anxiety levels dropped during pandemic, study finds

Ms Widnall said pupils who felt least connected to school before lockdown saw a larger decrease in anxiety, raising questions about how the school environment affects some younger teenagers' mental well-being.

University of Bristol Press Release: Report reveals young people felt less anxious and more connected to school in lockdown

University of Bristol: Report reveals young people felt less anxious and more connected to school in lockdown

The report: https://sphr.nihr.ac.uk/wp-con...the-COVID-19-Pandemic-Report.pdf

[ related topics: Children and growing up Health Nature and environment Current Events Monty Python Education Woodworking ]

Chinese-Made Smartphones Are Secretly Stealing Money From People Around The World

Preinstalled malware on low-cost Chinese phones has stolen data and money from some of the world's poorest people.

[ related topics: Currency ]

Saw most of this unfolding on Twitter, but this morning's WaPo headline list was pretty amazing:

Video shows Wisconsin police shooting a Black man multiple times as he enters a car

Portland police stand by as Proud Boys and far-right militias flash guns and brawl with antifa counterprotesters

Kellyanne Conway to leave the White House at the end of the month, citing the need to focus on her family, if you haven't been following this one, her husband has been part of The Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans backing Biden/Harris, and their 15 year old daughter has been dragging her parents pretty unmercifully on social media, and says she's seeking emancipation.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Sociology Journalism and Media Law Enforcement Television Civil Liberties Automobiles Guns Race Video Marriage Real Estate Woodworking ]

Trying to snark on Jerry Falwell Jr. and Ben Shapiro, but finding that however distasteful I find their politics, I just can't find it in me to kinkshame them.

[ related topics: Politics ]

‘Low profile’ arrest creates firestorm as officials, experts blast Pittsburgh police tactic

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said Cartier should not have been taken into custody.

“On Saturday, Pittsburgh Police, directed by the Public Safety director and the mayor, chose to proceed by arrest and criminal complaint on charges that should have been handled via summons,” he said Monday in a statement.

Zappala said his office got the police body camera footage and, pending a review, Cartier’s charges “appear to be a summary offense at best” and warrant no more than a ticket.

[ related topics: Photography Privacy Law Law Enforcement Fashion ]

Study: Increased presence of law enforcement officers in schools does not improve safety

The Crime Report: Keep Police Out of Schools: Study

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1745-9133.12512

[ related topics: Children and growing up Law Enforcement ]

A powerful Black leader. White opposition. Criminal charges. An old pattern continues in Portsmouth (Virginia)

“The people that were (in Portsmouth) 200 years ago are still there, and their descendants are still in power,” said Norfolk State University history professor Cassandra Newby-Alexander. “And they’re making sure that they maintain the status quo and do everything to fight against any changes — any challenges — to the status quo. They will use the force of law and fight tooth and nail to hold on to power and would rather see it destroyed than shared.”

The new criminal charges, like others in the past, are defended by those who bring them as a simple matter of law and order. Portsmouth Police Chief Angela Greene said Monday she had an obligation to “ensure all the laws of the state and our Constitution are upheld.” But to many Black residents, the double standard is clear: White officials don’t face the same scrutiny.

Via this Tweet

[ related topics: Star Wars Invention and Design History moron Law Law Enforcement Civil Liberties Education Race Government ]

Hawks Nest Tunnel to rise from the depths for first time in 85 years. It's a tunnel on the Gauley River, in West Virginia, that I've paddled a number of times. Got this link from a whitewater buddy. But it was built from 1930-1935, and this caught my eye:

The Hawks Nest Tunnel was completed months ahead of schedule by workers who labored six days a week on 10- to 12-hour shifts to drill and blast their way more than 3 miles through Gauley Mountain sandstone. The workers were issued no protective breathing gear to filter silica dust from the air.

According to Martin Cherniack, the medical doctor who wrote “The Hawks Nest Incident: America’s Worst Industrial Disaster,” at least 764 of the 1,213 people who worked in the tunnel for at least two months died from respiratory problems within five years of the tunnel’s completion.

I grew up with, of course, all sorts of tales of the evils of Communism. Pol Pot and Kampuchea were fresh in everyone's mind, my mom taught English as a Second Language to various Laos refugees. Of course Stalin's manipulations were a huge thing.

As I learn more about economics and history, it turns out that wasn't so much Communism as just politics and economics in the 20th Century, and the US was complicit if not an instigator of a whole lot of killing that got swept under the rug.

[ related topics: Interactive Drama Politics Health Current Events Whitewater Birds Economics ]

Of course I'm aware of "Rule 34", but I've been going back through Questionable Content, and was reminded of the theory of Quantum Fetish Dynamics: "The act of thinking up a new kind of fetish causes that fetish to exist." https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=715

[ related topics: Invention and Design ]

Twitter thread on the implcations of gritty Batman. Link drops into a solution, but scroll up and read the first part.

Alaska’s Attorney General on Unpaid Leave After Sending Hundreds of “Uncomfortable” Texts to a Young Colleague

Kevin Clarkson texted a much-younger state employee to come to his house at least 18 times, often using kiss emoji and commenting on her appearance. He’s been on unpaid leave for weeks, but the state never told the public he was gone, or why.

[ related topics: Law Work, productivity and environment Real Estate Alaska ]

Clear here, smoke on the horizon

[ related topics: Photography ]

Normally she's perched on the other side of the window

[ related topics: Photography ]

Pair of birds on the rail by the turning basin

[ related topics: Photography Trains Birds ]

Monmouth, NJ cops admit vandalizing cars of man who filed complaint against them, prosecutor says

Authorities say the men wore disguises when they rode their bikes to the vehicles in Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, smashed out the windows and slashed all the tires on Sept. 3 between 3 and 4 a.m.

The vehicles belonged to Ernest G. Mignoli, an outspoken Asbury Park resident critical of the city’s police department. Mignoli, 70, had filed an administrative complaint against both officers several days before the incidents. His “jaw dropped” when he learned that the people responsible for damaging his white Jeep Liberty and Toyota Prius were police officers, he said in an interview with NJ Advance Media last year.

[ related topics: Microsoft Journalism and Media Law Enforcement Race Bicycling ]

Kentucky Man Accused Of Breaking Canada's COVID-19 Rules Faces $569,000 Fine

RT Matt Pearce @mattdpearce

Not to be super obvious about this, but when the police shoot somebody in the back a bunch of times and people burn down a bunch of buildings and stuff in response, it's because the social contract has collapsed. To get order you have to have law first.

[ related topics: Law Enforcement Architecture ]

17-Year-Old ‘Blue Lives Matter’ Fanatic Charged With Murder at Kenosha Protest — Kyle Rittenhouse was reportedly arrested in Illinois and has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

“He had his hands up and they told him to get out of there, even though everyone was yelling that he was the shooter,” Brent Ford, a 24-year-old photographer who witnessed the shooting, told VICE News. “The police didn’t seem to hear or care what the crowd was saying.”

Prior to the shooting, the Kenosha Police were providing material support to the terrorists and told the "We appreciate you guys. We really do." Video at https://twitter.com/shannonrwatts/status/1298646698273603586

[ related topics: Current Events Law Enforcement Civil Liberties Automobiles Video ]

RT Shyguy @ProfessorShyguy

I know it’s been said, but remember when Trump said “Grab her by the pussy” and Republicans were like “Oh it’s innocent, boys will be boys” then Cardi B wrote a song asking for consensual sex with her own pussy and they FUCKING IMPLODED

[ related topics: Erotic Sexual Culture ]

RT Electric Ionian Ninja @IonianNinja

Actually, the Onion News is what happens when you put on the glasses in "they live"

The Onion: Every Member Of Police Department Excitedly Volunteers To Go Undercover In White Supremacist Group

[ related topics: Food Theater & Plays Current Events Law Enforcement Race ]

The sad part about the continued senseless waste of tax dollars, and, of course, humanity, is that if you went to any of the debates for the Sonoma County Sheriff's race, you saw the culture that Essick was going to perpetuate there. And if you saw his announcements on mask enforcement, it became even more clear that he and his department see the law as something to be ignored at personal whim.

And yet those who would further the goals of the authoritarian state, of the destruction of the system of law in favor personal whim enforcing "order", elected him anyway.

So, yeah, wonder what it's gonna take to pry the body cam video away from that department, and how many more millions we're gonna spend settling misconduct lawsuit (and how many more lives and how much more injury we're gonna spend in personal cost) before we go for reform.

Hagens Berman: Sonoma County Defends Policy of Arrest and Excessive Use of Deadly Force, Blaming Victim’s Response Time

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Interactive Drama Politics Sociology Current Events California Culture Video Woodworking ]

The sad part about the continued senseless waste of tax dollars, and, of course, humanity, is that if you went to any of the debates for the Sonoma County Sheriff's race, you saw the culture that Essick was going to perpetuate there. And if you saw his announcements on mask enforcement, it became even more clear that he and his department see the law as something to be ignored at personal whim.

And yet those who would further the goals of the authoritarian state, of the destruction of the system of law in favor personal whim enforcing "order", elected him anyway.

So, yeah, wonder what it's gonna take to pry the body cam video away from that department, and how many more millions we're gonna spend settling misconduct lawsuit (and how many more lives and how much more injury we're gonna spend in personal cost) before we go for reform.

Hagens Berman: Sonoma County Defends Policy of Arrest and Excessive Use of Deadly Force, Blaming Victim’s Response Time

[ related topics: Cameron Barrett Interactive Drama Politics Sociology Current Events California Culture Video Woodworking ]

I have worked in places that provided Aeron chairs, and opted out, because they just don't suit me. So I've had a basic desk chair that I've used for my work-from home situation, and it's been fine, but when my Dad died, my Mom shipped me his All33 chair. At first I was like "this is kinda gimmicky" about the rocking seat position, but I got used to it, and it was more comfortable than my basic alternative.

Then the bushings on it broke, so I emailed All33 to get a replacement, and it arrived today, and I'm super glad to have my comfy chair back, and it's a pleasure dealing with a high end company. Replacement parts were very fairly priced, the replacements I got look like they're stronger than the originals, so it looks like the design of this product is evolving, and the parts arrived with the Allen wrenches necessary to do all of the install, so I didn't even have to go out to the shop.

Chairs are personal things, so this chair may not work for everyone, but I'm even more happy with my experience of this one.

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

Because I'm needing to do some of this stuff:

Compress PDF files on Linux, using gs to get tremendous gains out of some scanned PDF files. One friend says he got a ratio of 1:78 with no noticeable degredation. I'm gonna try this on the things that come out of our Brother scanner.

A Better Way to Embed PDF Documents in Web Pages, using the Adobe Document Cloud plug-in to display embedded PDFs. Yeah, I know, download them and use the native viewer, but it turns out there are other enabling technologies I'm working on...

[ related topics: Free Software Open Source Robotics Work, productivity and environment Embedded Devices ]

I'm so old, I remember when there were Senate investigations over Al Gore making fundraising phone calls from The White House.

October 7, 1997: Al Gore's Phone Calls: How Serious ?

Within 90 days, Reno must decide on special prosecutor for vice president. Today, Senate probes Clinton's calls.

[ related topics: Politics Photography Race Gambling Real Estate ]

BMJ. 2005 Jan 22; 330(7484): 162. Royalty payments to staff researchers cause new NIH troubles

Dr Anthony Fauci told the BMJ that as a government employee he was required by law to put his name on the patent for the development of interleukin 2 and was also required by law to receive part of the payment the government received for use of the patent. He said that he felt it was inappropiate to receive payment and donated the entire amount to charity.

doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7484.162-a

PMCID: PMC545012

PMID: 15661767

[ related topics: Intellectual Property Invention and Design moron Work, productivity and environment ]

Oh wow. This is worth a read for anyone considering how to structure a governing body. In this case it's a suggestion for the Internet Engineering Task Force, but it's a worthwhile conversation to have from government level to hobby level.

RFC 8890 — The Internet is for End Users

[ related topics: moron Law Net Culture ]

Ex-Boston Police Union Pres. Charged With Raping 4 More Children

Patrick Rose, a former Boston police officer and president of the Boston Police Patrolmen's Association, was arrested on child sex charges earlier this month. Those charges stemmed from allegations he sexually assaulted a young relative starting when she was 7.

[ related topics: Children and growing up Erotic Sexual Culture Current Events Law Enforcement Flowers ]

Did you see photos of officers supposedly injured last weekend in NW cities? The facts don’t check out

The Associated Press checks out some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. This one is bogus, even though it was shared widely on social media. Here are the facts:

CLAIM: Photos show four police officers who were injured by Democrats and Black Lives Matter rioters over the weekend in Portland, Seattle and nearby cities.

THE FACTS: The officers in the photos weren’t injured at U.S. protests — in fact, they were on the other side of the world

[ related topics: Photography Journalism and Media Law Enforcement Seattle ]

We Are What We Steal.

A DX Lab Digital Drop-In experiment looking at some of the changes in NSW from 1860 to 1900 through the crimes recorded in the New South Wales Police Gazette and Weekly Record of Crime held in the State Library of NSW collection.

Via MeFi

[ related topics: Language Books Invention and Design Law Enforcement ]

How come it's "cowabunga" and not, like, "elkabunga", or "mooseabunga", or "wildebeestabunga"?

Edit: Writer Eddie Kean on the origin of "Cowabunga" on The Howdy Doody Show.

Grinding brackets to hang the lower shelf in the retracting bookshelf/headboard.

[ related topics: Photography ]

Fuuuu. Well, you can tell where the two indoor sensors are. We should probably get a sensor to add to this cloud. But, yeah, it's freakin' gross down here.

Map from https://www.purpleair.com/map?.../a10/cC0#10.86/38.2628/-122.7148

[ related topics: Photography Maps and Mapping ]

Hey Jamulus users: What ADC/mic interface box are you using? I have tried both a Behringer UMC202HD and an ESI U22 XT, both work great in Logic Pro, both have artifacts in Jamulus, even connecting to a <1ms server.

[ related topics: Work, productivity and environment ]

NYPD Defends "Challenge Coins" That Call East Flatbush Precinct "Fort Jah"

[ related topics: Current Events Currency ]