Ex-crack addict turned Trump loyalist harasses boy at DNC event
Mark Frauenfelder / 11:47 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Mike Lindell (Consolidated News Photos/Shutterstock.com)
'
Mike Lindell, the My Pillow founder who traded his addiction to crack for an addiction to MAGA hogwash, shaved his mustache to go incognito to this year's Democratic National Convention. He shouldn't have bothered shaving his mustache because no one cares about Mike Lindell other than Mike Lindell.
What did he do at the DNC? From the looks of this video, he went around hollering that the 2020 election was stolen. Look at how worked up he is as he spits out a fact-free rant in the face of a 12-year-old named Knowa, who is covering the convention.
Lindell is trying to convince Knowa that the ballots in Georgia were tampered with. It doesn't matter to Lindell that Georgia conducted three full counts of nearly 5 million votes cast, including a hand recount, and that all three counts confirmed Biden's victory. It doesn't matter that Trump and his allies filed at least six legal challenges to the Georgia results, all of which either failed or were withdrawn. It doesn't matter that Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, a Republican, emphasized: "The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen." It doesn't matter that Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger stated: "We conducted a statewide hand recount that reaffirmed the initial tally, and a machine recount at the request of the Trump campaign that also reaffirmed the original tally." All that matters is that the My Pillow guy doesn't like reality, and now that he is off crack, the mind-altering effect of being a MAGA dupe has him convinced that a deep state conspiracy prevented his criminal friend from being reelected.
Previously:
• Mike Lindell's evidence fails to 'shock the world' as promised: begs for donations
• Delusional MyPuppet Mike Lindell's blatant lies slapped down by Supreme Court
• Mike Lindell's MyPillow evicted from warehouse over unpaid rent
• Mike Lindell and Jim Bakker join forces to peddle 'Children's Bible Pillows' to help them fight the Devil
• Mike Lindell's must pay $5 million in 'Prove Mike Wrong' election-fraud challenge
• Mike Lindell tells voters not to vote early so 'we can overrun the algorithms'
Peloton is dying slower than the market anticipated
Jason Weisberger / 10:49 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Used Peloton Prices
Peloton's numbers show that rising prices and cutting staff can help slow their losses, but the business is still shrinking.
Peloton made slightly more money from both business segments—subscribers and hardware sales—than in the same quarter last year, but the revenue growth masks their shrinking market. Subscriptions are down. Churn in their app space is easy, as the users aren't invested and are likely their most profitable segment of subscribers. Aftermarket bikes abound for 75% less than buying from Peloton, and after digging into their business enough, the company has announced a fee for the activation of used hardware.
"We achieved modest Y/Y revenue growth in Q4 for the first time since Q2 FY22", the company said.
The subscription segment delivered $431 million of revenue, up 2.3%, while the connected fitness segment revenue fell 4% to $212.1 million.
…
The company ended the quarter with 6.4 million members, down 2% year over year. Paid connected fitness subscriptions also fell 1% to 2.981 million.
The maker of exercise bicycles and treadmills reported an adjusted EBITDA of $70.3 million, a turnaround from a loss of $(34.7) million a year ago.
"We delivered positive Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow for the second consecutive quarter, something we haven't accomplished since Q2 FY21," the company added. Paid App Subscriptions reached 615,000, down 26% year-over-year.
The average net monthly paid connected fitness subscription churn stood at 1.9%, and the average monthly paid app subscription churn was 8.4%.
Previously:
• As the company founders, used Pelotons flood the LA market
.
Gourdlets is an adorable, cozy town builder
Gail Sherman / 9:29 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Image: Screenshot/YouTube
Gourdlets is the least stressful town builder I have ever played. You don't have to water or feed anything. You have unlimited resources. There are no quests or any particular thing you need to do. You can build a farm, a town, or big campground. The gourdlets, your town's little blob-shaped veggie inhabitants, will be happy with absolutely anything you give them.
I am tempted to call this an experience rather than a game because it barely meets any of the requirements for a game other than some basic rules about placement. You can just build to your heart's content, and the more happy gourdlets you have, the more quickly a train will come and deliver you a new item. You will also get some bonus stuff whenever you build a new building. The gourdlets are super cute, and of course, you can accessorize them them with little hats or glasses.
There is also no money in the game, as described in the tutorial:
One fun option the game has is that it can live on the bottom of your screen, like Rusty's Retirement, so you can enjoy your little blobs while you work. If you are looking for a sophisticated town builder, Gourdlets isn't for you. It's a cozy little sandbox with an appropriately chill soundtrack, especially if you are playing while working. Also, as of this writing, it is on sale for $3.99, and the regular price is $4.99. I certainly got more than five bucks worth of entertainment out of it.
Previously in cozy games: Chill out with Capybara Spa, the coziest of cozy games
Short AI movie: What if Trump took ayahuasca and dropped out of politics?
Mark Frauenfelder / 9:21 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
The Transmutation of Donald Trump/Twitter
Most people have wondered what would happen if Donald Trump flew to South America's Orinoco basin and drank a bowl of ayahuasca. But until now, their answers were limited by their imaginations.
This AI-generated documentary explores an alternate reality where Trump, perhaps seeking answers after losing the 2024 presidential election, takes the powerful psychedelic.
During the trip, Trump confronts his inner demons, exorcises them, and comes out the other side as a benevolent spiritual leader, free of the fear-based traps of greed, envy, and lust.
Previously:
• Vsauce went to Peru to experience ayahuasca
• Ayahuasca retreat seems unsafe
• Ayahuasca as a remedy for the wider ills of the West
• Ancient psychedelic Ayahuasca's Brooklyn and Silicon Valley devotees
• Ayahuasca church spreads into UK
• The healing power of ayahuasca
• Psychedelic music depicted on ancient Peruvian rock art
Taliban fires 281 officers because they can't or won't grow beards
Rob Beschizza / 9:12 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
This stock photo Talib has an acceptable beard. Photo: charnsitr / Shutterstock
Afghanistan's Taliban overlords fired 281 members of the country's security forces because they failed to meet the group's beard mandate.
During a press conference in Kabul, Mohibullah Mokhlis, the ministry's director of planning and legislation, stated that "281 beardless officers were identified, confirmed, and dismissed" from the country's security services over the past 12 months. He added, "The hairstyles of 450 military mujahideen were corrected to comply with Sharia law. And some who repeated the [hairstyle] violation were sent to military courts."
Grim times for barbers in Kabul.
Previously:
• 'The Philosophy of Beards' from 1854
• Interview: Dr. Karl E H Seigfried talks Ásatrú, Heathenry and beards
• A tax on beards and other strange revenue enhancement schemes
• Hierarchy of Beards: the evolutionary history of face-fur
Leaked Project 2025 training videos feature unpleasant weirdos masquerading as ordinary people
Yoy Luadha / 8:30 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
The Daily Show
One of the bedrock rules for any budding fascist is: don't ever tell the world exactly what you're really planning. Might scare off some of those rubes you're trying to attract. And might cause the system to push back, to expel the virus before it's ready to kill the host. This is why Project 2025 is so confusing to me. They really did say the quiet part out loud. I guess they're so convinced of their own righteousness and wisdom that they must must must spread the good word immediately.
Now Project 2025 training videos have been leaked and, man, was Tim Walz right — sure they're scary as shit, but more than anything, these people are just f*cking weird. It's like these people just moved here from Uncanny Valley — they don't seem quite human.
The Daily Show did a very effective (and very funny) take down of this insanity. It's imperative that we get this stuff out there to as many people as possible — these people are not "conservatives"… they are radicals hellbent on tearing down our way of life. IMHO.
There's been a ton of coverage on this Project 2025 story, as there should be. I thought this WaPo article did a nice job of capturing the inherent danger here. But I do want to point out the language in one paragraph:
That Project 2025 is an albatross for Trump is demonstrated clearly by the former president's effort to distance himself from it. He has insisted that he has "no idea who is behind it," despite having previously traveled with Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation and a champion of the project.
The Heritage folks also know that Project 2025 isn't doing Trump any good.
"The Heritage folks?" Folks? That is terrible, dangerous wording — makes them sound like just reg'lar types, sittin' 'round the fishin' hole, drinkin' hot chocolate and comin' up with solutions for 'merica's problems. Instead of what they are… which is highly educated, highly motivated, highly funded fascists.
Previously:
• Media Matters publishes useful guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda that 'represents a threat to democracy, civil rights, the climate, and more'
• '25 and Me' is your guide to the horrors of Project 2025
• Trump's distancing himself from Project 2025 is all part of the plan
• Project 2025 is also very racist
• A list of the terrible things Project 2025 has in store for us
• Project 2025's goal: Trump as President for life
• How Project 2025 gets into your bedroom
MAGA experts: Polls showing Harris lead are "almost like election meddling"
Mark Frauenfelder / 8:10 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Newsmax/Media Matters
In MAGA land, any poll that doesn't give Trump a huge lead is faulty. All true Americans favor Trump. But the small minority of Americans who are communists run the polls, and they are manipulating the data to make it look as though Harris is the front-runner.
This truth is laid bare by a panel of highly intelligent and unbiased experts on America's most highly respected news source, Newsmax. Genius #1 is Jim McLaughlin, president of McLaughlin & Associates Polls, who tells his fellow panelists that pollsters "under-sampled Trump voters from anywhere from six to nine points. And that's what they continuously do."
Genius #2, host Rob Schmidt, said that any poll that doesn't show Trump as the champion tricks dumb people, who would normally support Trump, into throwing their hat in the ring for Harris:
I mean, they sometimes — I've heard them say suppression polls, but I mean, I think that when you put a poll out there that makes it look like Kamala is doing well, it creates the idea in a lot of people's minds that aren't intelligent enough to think for themselves that, oh, she must be better than I think she is. Or is she — obviously, people obviously like her, so I should like her too. I mean, this kind of polling, in my opinion, is dangerous and it's almost like election meddling in a way to put a poll out there like that and have it this skewed.
Genius #3 weighed in with a cute little saying about how polls can either "reflect" or "effect" public sentiment, but I was too busy admiring his sartorial brilliance to pay much attention to what he was saying, but since he was on the world's most reputable news channel, I'm certain it was 100% true.
[Via Media Matters]
Previously:
• Rotten news for Newsmax: Dominion gets access to journalists' text messages
• Watch Newsmax host Greg Kelly, formerly of Fox News, ogle and talk lecherously on live TV about his co-worker in a bathing suit (2014)
• Oh dear! Newsmax host slams Biden for not knowing 'Africa is a country' (video)
• Jen Psaki cuts through the BS of a Newsmax 'people say' question by pinning reporter down for a source
• Watch: Newsmax guest confronts host about Dominion Voting lies
Some of the witless things JD Vance said yesterday
Jason Weisberger / 8:09 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Image: Consolidated News Photos/Shutterstock.com
The Republican candidate for vice president seems unable to say anything that would encourage voters to consider his ticket.
Yesterday, JD Vance reminded us that his boss, Donald Trump, caused the massive inflation that the Biden administration has been successfully battling. Trump's inept management of the COVID pandemic, where hundreds of thousands of US citizens died due to his slow and sometimes non-existent response, and his crackpot, unqualified medical recommendations. Vance also reminded us that while Kamala Harris' choice of Tim Walz as his running mate has been repeatedly used to demonstrate her excellent decision-making skills, Trump picked Vance. Rounding it out, Vance also seemingly implied Trump is a whiner who does nothing to help Americans.
As Democrats rally with enthusiasm at their convention in Chicago, Vance has continued such a long streak of self-inflicted blunders that it's hard to decide if they stem from incompetence or if he's deliberately engaging in some form of performance art.
During a softball interview on Fox News following the third night of the Democratic National Convention, Vance not only appeared to blame Trump for inflation but also suggested that rising prices were an accomplishment Trump could point to as a result of 'successful leadership.' Realizing what he had just said, Vance paused his comments, utilizing a strategically placed 'umm' before correcting himself.
Vance: 'Donald Trump can point to four years of successful leadership and say I delivered rising prices… umm, rising wages for American workers.'
Vance's issues continued to follow him into his next interview on CNN, where he appeared to unintentionally describe Trump while attempting to criticize Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD) as a politician who was 'whining about what happened to them instead of using their leadership and influence to make the lives of American citizens better.'
Previously:
• More weird ideas from JD Vance about women
• JD Vance's ugly, disrespectful debate challenge
• JD Vance joins JK Rowling in Olympic anti-trans bigotry
• Hillbilly Eulogy: JD Vance's approval rating nosedives
• Russian TV host giddy over Trump's JD Vance pick: 'Trumpier than Trump' (video)
Don Jr and JD Vance hate first-time homebuyers
Jason Weisberger / 7:42 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Image: Twitter/Screen Grab
Two wild and crazy weirdos, JD Vance and Don Jr., have strongly opposed Kamala Harris' proposed first-time homebuyer credit.
This is a clear sign the Trump team hates non-wealthy people. While the statements are bald and blatant lies, the Harris economic tent pole of a $25,000 first-time home buyers credit is to help Americans own their own homes. At a time when housing, where we get to put our stuff and feel safe in our own spaces, has become a significant issue for considerable people in the United States. When rents are soaring, homelessness abounds, and the dream of owning one's own home seems so far out of reach for so many, you'd think the Trump team would try to one-up them with more money. Instead, they are casting it as some bizarre free lunch of $25k to undocumented migrants who've come here seeking a better life.
DON JR: You guessed it, folks, illegals that they're letting into the country would be able to get $25,000 boost to help buy their first home, and you, the great citizens and taxpayers of America, have the privilege of paying for that. (Lie)
Your children will get to pay back that debt for probably centuries to come. You can get the money without citizenship.
That's according to her campaign. (Lie)
That's why they are, frankly, registering them to vote and giving driver's license.
I spoke to Ken Paxton this weekend, he's talking about they're setting up registries for all the illegals that are coming out.
When they get their DMV license, they can do it.
They can't legally do it, but they check a box and they say they think they're fine to vote as long as they think they're okay.
It's not really illegal.
No one's gonna enforce it.
They wanna make sure they neuter anyone who would actually check those voter rolls or confirm those citizenships, so they're not allowed to do it, but they will.
I wouldn't expect Kamala Harris to release more ideas.
Naturally, these guys will stand in the way of anyone trying to develop generational wealth. Don Jr because, like his Dad, he'll inherit his future, and JD wants to pull the ladder up before someone who isn't one of his hardcore middle-American nutters might use it.
Previously:
• Conservatives heckle Donald Trump Jr. at book-signing
• Watch: Mary Trump laughs hard when asked about Ivanka and Don Jr's future careers: 'It's over.'
• 'I'm stupid' says Donald Trump Jr
MIT's AI risk database exposes 700+ ways AI could ruin your life
Thom Dunn / 7:30 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Boing Boing/Midjourney
The AI Risk Repository is a new, publicly available database system compiled by MIT researchers that catalogs the over 700 (and counting) risks of using generative AI.
From the abstract:
The risks posed by Artificial Intelligence (AI) are of considerable concern to academics, auditors, policymakers, AI companies, and the public. However, a lack of shared understanding of AI risks can impede our ability to comprehensively discuss, research, and react to them. This paper addresses this gap by creating an AI Risk Repository to serve as a common frame of reference. This comprises a living database of 777 risks extracted from 43 taxonomies, which can be filtered based on two overarching taxonomies and easily accessed, modified, and updated via our website and online spreadsheets.
[…]
The AI Risk Repository is, to our knowledge, the first attempt to rigorously curate, analyze, and extract AI risk frameworks into a publicly accessible, comprehensive, extensible, and categorized risk database. This creates a foundation for a more coordinated, coherent, and complete approach to defining, auditing, and managing the risks posed by AI systems.
The website also includes some comprehensive details about how the researchers developed their taxonomy and definitions of what, exactly, qualifies as an AI risk. But if you don't want to dig into the academicese, MIT Technology Review also summarized it:
The team combed through peer-reviewed journal articles and preprint databases that detail AI risks. The most common risks centered around AI system safety and robustness (76%), unfair bias and discrimination (63%), and compromised privacy (61%). Less common risks tended to be more esoteric, such as the risk of creating AI with the ability to feel pain or to experience something akin to "death."
The database also shows that the majority of risks from AI are identified only after a model becomes accessible to the public. Just 10% of the risks studied were spotted before deployment.
Of course, there's a question of whether any Silicon Valley startups will actually consult this list before developing some hokey new generative AI feature to dazzle their investors with before laying off a bunch of workers for absolutely no good reason.
Watch the video.
A new public database lists all the ways AI could go wrong [Scott J. Mulligan / MIT Technology Review]
AI Risk Repository [Massachusetts Institute of Technology]
Landlord bills dead tenant's relatives $15k because she broke her lease
Rob Beschizza / 7:23 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Sandra Bonilla in a handout photo
Sandra Bonilla, 91, died in late June. A resident of the Lodge at Shavano Park Apartments for 10 years, she was survived by children including David Naterman, her son. The landlord has billed her family $15,676 because in death Bonilla broke her lease. Texas explicitly provides for lease cancellation upon death, and Naterman says he completed the paperwork, not that the demand would pass muster elsewhere.
"I think it's pretty unusual, I've never heard of anybody trying to charge an estate or somebody who is deceased for rent before," said Bill Clanton, an attorney who specializes in consumer and debt collection law.
Clanton says a section of the Texas Property Code (sec. 92.0162) states a representative of the tenant's estate may "avoid liability for future rent" if they take two steps: Remove all property from the apartment and provide a written notice of termination. The landlord can only charge up to 30 days rent after the notice is received.
"The landlord can charge for about 30 days once the lease is terminated, you can't get blood from a turnip and you certainly can't get rent from a dead person," Clanton said.
You don't inherit debts in any case. Even absent the law cancelling her lease, the only conceivable claim would be upon the lessee's estate, not her family. How many bereaved families over the years have coughed up because they didn't know any better?
Why dinosaur bones were the real nail in religion's coffin
Yoy Luadha / 7:00 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Cabazon, California dinosaur attraction (Photo: Mark Frauenfelder)
I've always been fascinated by humankind's move from superstition to science. It obviously didn't happen all at once (and to some degree is still happening — 20% of Americans take the Bible literally). But can a tipping point be identified? A moment where the species saw the truth of the Matrix and there was no going back? Copernicus' discovery that the Earth orbited the sun? The invention of the printing press? The Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution? Isaac Newton's laws of motion? Or maybe much later, with the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species?
This piece in The Atlantic reviews two new books which make the case that the single most important turning point is… the discovery of dinosaur bones. That's right — this one moment in 1811 upended the received wisdom more than any other and did it almost overnight.
The discovery of prehistoric fossils, largely in Britain, challenged long-held theological and scientific assumptions about nature and humankind's place in it: that the Bible was to be taken literally; that the world had been made a mere 6,000 years before; that a divine being wrought man in his own image; that humans were the pinnacle of all Creation. As [author Michael] Taylor writes, "Few if any transformations in intellectual history have been more profound."
It's hard for us to grasp from our perch in 2024, but the idea that there had been species that were not around anymore really must have been an earthquake, a civilization defining moment — suddenly Noah's ark looks a lot more like a metaphorical story and less like a history lesson.
According to Taylor, the discoveries of fossils and ancient bones of heretofore unknown creatures marks the place "where new knowledge of the Earth and its prehistoric inhabitants collided seriously and persistently with Christian belief in the accuracy of the Bible." Genesis was perhaps not a factual account of how the world began. Fossils suggested that the world might actually be far older—by millions and millions of years—than anyone had imagined.
Myths die hard — so much work and thought and identity and morality are tied up in believing these myths. James Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland in the 17th century, famously spent years working out the exact date of creation: October 22, 4004 BC. As absurd as it sounds, he didn't pull that date out of his ass — he devoted his career to reading the Bible closely to make this calculation and knew to a certainty that the world was only 6,000 years old.
Here's the irony:
When Darwin died in 1882…he was buried at Westminster Abbey, not far from Bishop James Ussher…. That Darwin was interred at the Abbey too seemed to indicate that there was truly no going back: The world was no longer explained by "bishops' books," as Wallace Stevens described it, but perhaps, more so than ever before, by science.
Previously:
• Scientists discover two new dinosaur species in Chinese fossils
• Watch Morne Mamlambo prepare a 4-million-year-old fossilized penguin
• Flying T-Rex fossils found in Australia, because of course they were
• Man notices ancient human jawbone embedded in parents' tile floor
• Three little kids find juvenile T-rex fossil while hiking
• Scientists study fossils without having to remove them from rock
German warship blasts Star Wars' Imperial March on Thames
Rob Beschizza / 6:48 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Screenshot via YouTube
The German Navy corvette Braunschweig blasted the Imperial March from Star Wars as it made its way up the Thames earlier this week, amusing locals and reminding them that the German sense of humor can be as appreciably dark as their own.
That is a big corvette, isn't it? And isn't it odd how some of their frigates are larger than British destroyers.
Previously: Review: Kraftwerk: Future Music From Germany
Pink parenting revolution: Male flamingos raise chick at UK zoo
Gail Sherman / 6:30 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Flamingos in Aruba (Photo: Mark Frauenfelder)
Chilean Flamingo chicks are being welcomed to the Paignton Zoo in the UK for the first time since 2018. Among the happy couples hatching chicks are Curtis and Arthur. The two dads are one of several couples named by fans on Instagram. (How were neither of them named Birdy McBirdface?) The proud pops watched over the egg until it hatched and have been dutifully rearing the adorable little ball of fluff.
As to how the two male birds ended up caring for an egg and hatching a chick:
"Regarding the same-sex parenting, we aren't entirely sure how this has come about, although it is a known phenomenon in Chilean flamingos as well as other bird flocks. The most likely scenario is that the egg was abandoned by another couple, so this pair have 'adopted' it."
Pete Smallbones, Curator of Birds at Paignton Zoo
Chilean Flamingos are listed as "near threatened," so every chick is important. If the egg was abandoned, it would make Curtis and Arthur's adoption all the more special.
Previously: Gay male penguin couple steals unhatched eggs from lesbian penguin couple
Anime character breaks free: Watch her hijack 3D software in video
Thom Dunn / 6:00 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Boing Boing/Midjourney
Over on X-Formerly-Known-As-Twitter, 3D modeling artist Kensyouen Y posted this fascinating animation of an anime character reaching through the screen to interact with the UI of their animation software to bring herself to life.
Reader John Whitehead shared the video with me, linking to an article on 80LV, which described the delightful animation quite succinctly:
Created with Blender, Kensyouen_Y's masterpiece breaks the fourth wall by depicting an anime-style 3D girl model becoming sentient and playing around with Blender's UI, messing around with different tools and functionalities, changing her own hair color via Shader Nodes, and eventually crashing the software with her boisterous high jinks.
While the concept of character models breaking the fourth wall in CG projects is not new, it is definitely taken to the next level thanks to Kensyouen_Y's immense artistic talent, combining tons of fun ideas with smooth animations.
Kensyouen has also created some great tutorials over on YouTube, sharing some of their approaches to 3D modeling and anime design.
Who put maggots in the Democratic National Convention breakfast buffet?
Rob Beschizza / 4:45 am PT Thu Aug 22, 2024
Image: Vovantarakan / shutterstock.com
Someone put "maggots" in the breakfast at the DNC.
"We were all coming down to breakfast, and there were these two women who had hidden themselves in the bathroom," Indiana delegate Karen Tallian told USA TODAY. "And they ran out and threw maggots into the breakfast buffet." Tallian, a retired state senator, said friends who reached the dining room ahead of her had witnessed the contamination.
The FBI is investigating the delicious buffet maggots.
"Multiple unknown female offenders are alleged to have entered a building…and began placing unknown objects onto tables containing food," the convention's information center said in a statement. "The offenders are believed to have then left the area. One victim was treated and released on-scene. Along with CPD, FBI-Chicago is assisting in the investigation."
MAGA and anti-war activists are the obvious suspects; the latter reportedly pulled a similar stunt during the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to D.C. last month. Go to the nearest bait shop, they're surely expecting a visit.
Megalopolis trailer withdrawn due to fabricated movie critic quotes
Rob Beschizza / 5:43 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
Megalopolis
Earlier today, the trailer to Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis dropped, with the first 45 seconds dedicated to nasty things that critics of yore said about his most famous movies—an attempt to get in front of the critical mauling his new sci-fi epic is expected to receive. It turns out all the mean quotes were fake, and the trailer has been taken down.
"Lionsgate is immediately recalling our trailer for 'Megalopolis,'" a Lionsgate spokesperson said in a statement provided to Variety. "We offer our sincere apologies to the critics involved and to Francis Ford Coppola and American Zoetrope for this inexcusable error in our vetting process. We screwed up. We are sorry." … It's not clear where most of the quotes featured in the trailer came from — with the exception of Roger Ebert's comment, "a triumph of style over substance," which was actually pulled from his 1989 review of "Batman," and not about "Dracula," as indicated in the trailer.
Scandalously incompetent, seriously bizarre!
Tom the Dancing Bug: Russia's Communist Revolution – Could it happen here?
Ruben Bolling / 5:41 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
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After massive public outcry, Disney stops attempt to kill lawsuit after killing restaurant guest
Yoy Luadha / 4:52 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
Boing Boing/Midjourney
AP reported yesterday that "Disney drops bid to have allergy-death lawsuit tossed because plaintiff signed up for Disney+."
I'm not a lawyer but the initial legal argument being made by Disney seems to me to be pure bad faith horseshit. This piece in New York Magazine looks at the lawsuit stemming from the allergic reaction death of a doctor named Amy Tangsuan at a Disney World Resort restaurant:
Tangsuan was allergic to dairy and nuts, and before she and her husband ordered, (they) asked a waiter whether any of the allergens were in her order… The waiter consulted with the chef, and then assured her that they could be made dairy- and nut-free.
About 45 minutes after Tangsuan ate, she went into an anaphylactic shock so severe her EpiPen was useless. She died soon after at a nearby hospital. In February, her husband filed a wrongful-death suit against the restaurant and Disney's theme-parks division, seeking money damages.
Tragic, no doubt, though tragedies happen every day. Here's the part that just makes me furious:
[Her husband] Piccolo's lawsuit is currently in danger of getting thrown out of court and locked down into private arbitration, where further details would likely never come to light. Disney has argued that Piccolo gave up his right to sue as far back as 2019 when he signed up for a free trial of Disney+ and again in 2023, when he agreed to terms and conditions on the company's website to purchase tickets to the theme park.
Am I reading this right? Because he signed up for Disney's streaming service, which has an arbitration clause in the fine print, he's given up his right to sue the corporation for any reason under any conditions forever? It seems like a ludicrous argument. But the fact that Disney lawyers are arguing this with a straight face means there must be at least some chance that this ploy will work.
Did they try this now abandoned tactic to save money? Of course. But it sounds like they're really doing it to save face — by moving cases to arbitration, it's permanently out of the public's view; however the case is settled, the general public will almost certainly be in the dark. PR problem of killing guests thus solved.
They must have missed the part where Jiminy Cricket sings "always let your conscience be your guide."
Kentucky museum displays piece of meat that fell from sky during freaky meat shower
Allan Rose Hill / 4:23 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
image: Chatty G
On March 3, 1876, a Mrs. Crouch of Bath County, Kentucky noticed something strange falling from the sky just outside her house. Upon closer inspection, she determined that chunks of red meat were raining from above. The so-called Kentucky Meat Shower has confounded residents of the region, scientists, and the generally curious ever since. Now, a hunk of the meat—preserved for the ages—is on display as part of an exhibit at the Bath County History Museum. Video below.
Of course, unusual things falling from the sky, like fish or frogs, were a favorite topic in the books of Charles Fort (1874-1932), "collector" of anomalous phenomena who greatly influenced my own appreciation for high weirdness. Fort even included the Kentucky Fish Fall in his first volume, The Book of the Damned,
So what the hell was it that rained on Mrs. Crouch?
"The meat appeared to be beef, but according to the first report in Scientific American, two men who tasted it judged it to be lamb or deer," states Wikipedia. "Writing in the Sanitarian, Leopold Brandeis identified the substance as Nostoc, a type of cyanobacteria. Brandeis gave the meat sample to the Newark Scientific Association for further analysis, leading to a letter from Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton appearing in the Medical Record and stating the meat had been identified as lung tissue from either a horse or a human infant, 'the structure of the organ in these two cases being almost identical.'"
Of course, whatever kind of meat it was doesn't explain why it fell from the sky. A common theory is that it was simply vulture vomit.
Previously:
• Did it rain worms in China? (video)
• Fish falls from sky, smashes Tesla windshield (video)
• Fish are literally falling from the sky in San Francisco
• Raining fish in Australia
• Thousands of fish dropped from the sky
• Bloody flesh fell from the heavens during the Kentucky Meat Shower of 1976
Violent road-raging Tesla driver up for parole after serving less than one-year of a five-year sentence
Mark Frauenfelder / 3:10 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
Violent road rager Nathan Radimak
Good news for people who like to go around smashing things with a steel pipe and stalking and threatening seniors: you could get out of prison sooner than you think. Look at Nathaniel Walter Radimak (37), a proud Tesla driver who terrorized folks in Southern California during a six-month "reign of terror" that resulted in a five-year prison sentence. (See video.)
From a 2023 LA District Attorney's Office press release:
On January 11, the defendant is accused of using a pipe and striking someone's car on the 2 Freeway. Later that day, Radimak allegedly followed a couple from a shopping mall in Pasadena and nearly struck their car with his vehicle. He also allegedly struck their vehicle with a metal pole.
On November 9, 2022, Radimak is accused of threatening to attack a woman at a storage facility in Atwater Village. Later that day, he allegedly got out of his vehicle and threatened another woman on a freeway and broke one of her headlights.
Last June, the defendant also is accused of threatening to assault a 74-year-old woman outside a doctor's office in Glendale.
Radimak has a pending case where he is accused of allegedly attacking another driver in a road rage incident that occurred in Hollywood in January 2020. When his car was searched, he allegedly had steroids and more than $30,000. He is charged in case BA494303 with one felony
The LA Times reports that the roid-and-road-rager "could be freed after serving less than a year of his five-year sentence, according to files from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. His earliest eligible parole date is listed as August 2024, though the department noted the date was "subject to change."
From the Times:
Radimak was initially charged with four counts of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury, four counts of criminal threats and one felony count of vandalism, along with two misdemeanor counts of vandalism and one misdemeanor count of elder abuse.
He pleaded no contest and was eventually sentenced to five years for stalking and two years for criminal threats (served concurrently) in state prison in August 2023.
He's credited with 424 days served awaiting sentencing — 212 days for time served and 212 days for good behavior, according to Los Angeles County Superior Court records.
Looks like Radimak didn't learn much from his first scrape with the law. A 2011 newspaper article reported that Radmik was wanted on several charges in Cicero, NY: "Nate Radimak, who has a lengthy criminal record, is wanted on charges of felony third-degree robbery, sixth-degree conspiracy and second-degree harassment, police said."
I'm sure he's learned his lesson.
Images: (California Highway Patrol)
Previously:
• Tesla driver enters full road rage mode
• California road ragers shoot each other dead
• Small town Mayor arrested in road rage incident
• Suspected road rage killers spotted by police at sushi restaurant
• Video: Road rage in Russia starring SpongeBob, Mickey Mouse, and pals
• Man clings to hood of car at 70 mph in road rage video
Detroit judge faces lawsuit after detaining and humiliating a sleeping 15-year-old during a courtroom field trip
Mark Frauenfelder / 2:06 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
Detroit Judge Kenneth J. King, sued for handcuffing a homeless student who fell asleep in his courtoom while on a field trip
The mother of a 15-year-old girl is suing Detroit Judge Kenneth J. King after he handcuffed and detained her for falling asleep while on a field trip to his courtroom, reports The Washington Post. The complaint accuses Judge King of "malicious prosecution, unlawful arrest and incarceration, intentional infliction of emotional distress, false arrest and imprisonment, unlawful seizure and detention, and invasion of privacy."
From the complaint:
[King] berated the minor on a live platform, ordered her jailed, caused her to be handcuffed, demanded that she take off her clothes and change into jail garb, imprisoned her for hours, and then conducted a fake trial with her classmates (and possibly his internet followers) as her jurors and his audience."
"She was first detained in a room facing the court from where she could hear the judge call cases," Felty said. Then, he said, a female corrections officer handcuffed her, moved her into another room and asked her to change her clothes.
The complaint said she was then asked to put on a jail jumpsuit and made to wait for two hours, separated from the rest of her group.
After she was called back to the courtroom, Felty said, King "conducts what can only be described as mock trial of the girl. He humiliates and degrades her for the benefit of the other students and, possibly, his internet followers."
In a radio interview, the girl's mother said her daughter was tired because they didn't have permanent housing. "The fact that he was talking about 'you go home and get in your bed', how do you know my baby got a home, how do you know my baby got a bed, her own bed she could sleep in, she don't have that right now, so she was tired," she told the station.
Judge King isn't apologizing for his actions (which you can see in this video). In a radio interview he said, "It was her whole attitude and her whole disposition that disturbed me. I'll do whatever needs to be done to reach these kids and make sure that they don't end up in front of me."
Chief Judge William McConico has temporarily removed Judge King from the docket, and Wayne State University has removed him from teaching two courses this fall.
Previously:
• Man curses at judge who responds with 93 days in jail leading to long tit-for-tat of 'f-yous' and jail time (video)
• Judge who accepted private-prison bribes to send black kids to jail sentenced to 28 years
• Illinois judge fired for misconduct after circumventing law to reverse rape conviction
• 'WASTED,' Mark Judge's memoir of teen drinking with Brett Kavanaugh, free at the Internet Archive
Man with fresh, bleeding hair transplant arrested after refusing to leave plane
Rob Beschizza / 12:25 pm PT Wed Aug 21, 2024
Eugenio Ernesto Hernandez-Garnier and Yusleydis Blanca Loyola
Cabin crew aboard an American Airlines flight out of Miami were alarmed to find a passenger bleeding from the scalp after a hair transplant, and asked him to deboard after he said he had no extra bandages. He and another passenger refused and were arrested.
Eugenio Ernesto Hernandez-Garnier and a female companion were hauled off the aircraft at Miami airport on Tuesday, according to local media. … The pair refused to leave with an arrest report stating the woman, Yusleydis Blanca Loyola, told crew "if they could not fly, no one else can either".
If you can't be polite to our guests, Mr. Krendler, you have to sit at the kiddies' table.
I love this detail:
The woman started live streaming the incident on TikTok and they were eventually handcuffed and taken off the American Airlines flight to Las Vegas.
There should be a special term for when people confuse inconvenience for injustice so badly they whip out their phones and film it for the convenience of the justiciar.
And that ruler-straight hairline! If you're going to do that you may as well go "full Vincent."
