Deadly mosquito virus kills a man near Boston, causing parks and events to shut down
Carla Sinclair / 11:54 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: Witsawat.S / shutterstock.com
A deadly mosquito virus has hit Massachusetts, killing a man and causing at least 10 towns near Boston to sound the alarm. Many have called off public activities and events, and closed their parks after sundown.
The 80-year-old victim was a man in Worcester (next door to Boston), who was known to his family as the one who never got mosquito bites. But he died over the weekend from a mosquito bite infected with eastern equine encephalitis.
Although rare, eastern equine encephalitis outbreaks are serious — 30% of people who are infected with it die, according to the CDC via The Washington Post, "and many survivors suffer ongoing neurological problems."
Symptoms of eastern equine encephalitis can start with headaches, chills, a high fever, and vomiting, according to the New York State Department of Health, but often progresses into "disorientation, seizures, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), and coma."
"It's vital for everyone to stay vigilant and follow personal protection guidelines to safeguard our community," said a commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.
From The Washington Post:
Ten communities are now designated at high or critical risk for the virus, the health agency said Saturday. Plymouth, about 40 miles south of Boston, closed all public parks and fields from dusk until dawn. Nearby,Oxford banned all outdoor activities on town property after 6 p.m.
"We have not seen an outbreak of EEE for four years in Massachusetts," Robbie Goldstein, the state's department of public health commissioner, said in a statement. "We need to use all our available tools to reduce risk and protect our communities. We are asking everyone to do their part." …
Massachusetts health officials said there will be mosquito spraying between dusk and dawn throughout this week in Plymouth and Worcester counties to limit the presence of eastern equine encephalitis.
Residents are urged to use mosquito repellents, drain standing water around their homes, wear clothing that covers skin, and reschedule outdoor activities to avoid the hours between dusk and dawn.
Previously: Bill Gates wants us to fear mosquitoes, not sharks
Fun facts about the BIC ballpoint pen (video)
Jason Weisberger / 11:48 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: 4H4 PH/shutterstock.com
If you want to try writing with a cheap plastic disposable pen, the BIC Crystal is the pen for you.
I hate scribbling back and forth on a piece of paper, trying to get a rollerball pen to start flowing after they've sat for a long time. The BIC, however, is pretty classic in its ability to fill the void when you really need any pen. It is, after all, the world's number one selling pen, and hexagonal to boot! My favorite pen is a Parker Duofold.
Previously:
• Levenger's L-Tech 3.0 Stealth, a serious fountain pen
• I tried a reader recommended $31 fountain pen
• $5 knockoff of world famous Parker 51 fountain pen
• The best white pen is the Uniball Signo Broad
• Wes Anderson designed a very expensive fountain pen
• Put an inexpensive gel refill in your fancy Fisher Space Pen
New minor league bat dog gets zoomies, poops on field
Gail Sherman / 10:18 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: everydoghasastory / shutterstock.com
Layla, the 13-year-old bat dog for the Clearwater Threshers, a minor league affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, is retiring. Her replacement is her little sister, Lucy May.
Lucy May took the field as scheduled but got a little overexcited. She proceeded to run past the bat, stop by the visiting team's dugout, race joyously around the infield, and then have a nice poop. The crowd, predictably, went wild. On her second attempt, she visited the mound, where the stone-faced pitcher rudely refused to give her the ball.
It's OK, Lucy May! It's your first day. Still 13/10 and a good girl.
According to the team's Instagram account, Lucy May's job is safe:
Lucy May is only 10 months old! She jumped into training when Layla had to step down, and even though she doesn't have it quite right, she is 1000% KEEPING her job! She's over 6 years younger than Layla was when she started, so she's still learning.
Previously: Finn the Bat Dog is retiring from minor league baseball
Organic food myths busted: Why you might be wasting money on "healthier" options
Mark Frauenfelder / 9:57 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
An organic greenhouse eggplant (Katerina Maksymenko/shutterstock.com)
"Any consumers who buy organic food because they believe that it contains more healthful nutrients than conventional food are wasting their money." says Joseph D. Rosen, emeritus professor of food toxicology at Rutgers. This quote appears in a "mythbusting" article about organic foods by Christie Wilcox, a postdoctoral researcher in cellular and molecular biology at the University of Hawaii, published in Scientific American.
Wilcox busts four myths in her piece:
Myth #1: Organic Farms Don't Use Pesticides
Wilcox points out that organic farms frequently use pesticides, sometimes in higher amounts than conventional ones, and may also pose risks like higher pathogen levels from manure use, making it crucial to know your food's source.
Myth #2: Organic Foods are Healthier
Wilcox notes that studies show no significant nutritional difference between organic and conventional foods, and blind taste tests reveal most people can't tell them apart.
Myth #3: Organic Farming Is Better For The Environment
Despite using fewer synthetic pesticides, Wilcox argues that organic farming can still be ecologically damaging and less efficient, potentially causing more harm than conventional methods if widely adopted.
Myth #4: It's All or None
Wilcox suggests that instead of choosing sides, we should combine the best of organic and conventional farming, using technologies like GMOs to create a more sustainable agricultural future.
Previously:
• A nutritionist explains when and why she buys 'organic' fruits and veg
• Is organic food a scam?
• The unspeakable horror of Organic Smiles Cereal
• Correlation between autism diagnosis and organic food sales
Trump glitches again — this time slurring and stopping mid-sentence in Truth Social post
Carla Sinclair / 9:43 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: a katz / shutterstock.com
Donald Trump, who can no longer mask his cognitive decline, slurred and then glitched out once again, this time in a post.
Usually, the discombobulated candidate, approaching 80 years old, slips up while speaking, forgetting where he is, imagining Hannibal the Cannibal to be a real person, and blanking out on the names of everyone from JD Vance to his doctor to even his own wife (see him in action in the videos below).
But in the latest example of his deteriorating ability to communicate, Trump goofed while rage-typing on Truth Social Sunday morning, slurring the word "powerful" before trailing off mid-sentence.
"These are great patriots who work their hearts out to have a Strong and Powerfulnnz Border," he scrawled, "only to be harassed by Border Czar Kamala Harris, who wants the"… The message stopped there. What it is that the frozen Trump wanted to say about Harris remains a mystery, most likely even to him.
In the end, someone in the Trump campaign took pity on the bumbling conman and stepped in to delete his nutty post — but of course nothing on the Internet is ever truly deleted. (See below, reposted by Liberal Lisa in Oklahoma).
Previously: Uh oh! Donald Trump loses it again, this time forgetting what the word "election" means (video)
Scientists teach goo to play Pong
Gail Sherman / 9:36 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Scientists have found that a pile of goo can play Pong if you give it a little electricity as a boost. It can also learn to get better over time. The Manchester, UK, team added ions to a polymer to make it react to electricity. They then hooked it up to a computer playing Pong on a 3×3 grid.
The hydrogel swells faster than it shrinks, while its rate of swelling slows even as the electrical current remains constant. The researchers say that these properties create a rudimentary sort of memory, as signs of the swelling remain recorded in the gel.
"Instead of it just knowing what's immediately happened, it has a memory of the ball's motion over the entirety of the game," says Strong. "So it sort of gains an experience of the ball's general motion, not just its current position. It sort of becomes a black-box neural network that has a memory of the ball's behaviour, how it behaves and how it moves."
Although the gel can only perform relatively simple tasks, the authors believe it could create more efficient algorithms for traditional computers using fewer resources. Additionally, the hydrogel might serve as a standalone analog computer, but more work would need to be done to discover if that is possible or practical.
Previously:
• Sons of Pong
• Homebrew Pong watch
• Mondrian pong
• Pong is now 50 years old. Here's the story of its invention.
Mr. Brain Worms and Orangey McOrangeface desperately cling to one another
Ellsworth Toohey / 9:12 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Boing Boing/Flux
RFK Jr.'s campaign was on life support. Polling at less than 4%, his funds were evaporating, and so was the media attention he desperately needed to stay relevant.
Taking a cue from his wriggling brain-eating worms, Bobby Jr. began searching for a new host body to infest. He targeted Harris first. She was healthy, vibrant, and most importantly, still viable. "Trust me," he pleaded. "I'm a symbiote, not a parasite, I swear!" But the Harris administration's immune system was too strong, rejecting Junior before he could sink his teeth in, leaving him scurrying off to find another warm-blooded host to carry his delusions to the masses.
He then set his sights on the less-desirable Donald. Junior had previously called Donald a "terrible human being" and "probably a sociopath," but at this point, Junior was like a hermit crab without a shell—desperate and willing to crawl into anything.
Donald, however, wasn't eager to be infected by Junior just yet. First, Donald was already hosting a zoo of other noxious parasites: Alex Jones, QAnon, the Proud Boys, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and the Heritage Foundation. Second, Donald was a parasite himself—his favorite poem is "Siphonaptera"—so he knew all about their sneaky ways. Third, Donald couldn't stand Junior. He once described him as the "dumbest member" of the Kennedy dynasty, and a "radical left lunatic" for his environmental ideas.
"But I was just kidding about saving the planet!" Junior croaked. "I'll bring you votes!"
Donald would have loved to reject Junior, but with Harris climbing in the polls, he had no choice but to accept Junior's offer. The two parasites merged into a grotesque abomination of political desperation, twice as delusional and half as coherent, appealing mainly to those who believe the Earth is flat, vaccines are mind control, and that a reality TV actor and a conspiracy theorist can turn the United States into a hybrid of Happy Days and The Handmaid's Tale. But the rest of the world was ready to change the channel to a new show.
"A dream in the making" Ikea to sell used furniture online
Jason Weisberger / 8:29 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: Eusebio Torres/shutterstock.com
Someone at Ikea thinks an online used furniture outlet is a huge deal.
Want to get rid of your Grönkulla? Do you need a matching Flärdfull, but they've been discontinued for years and replaced with a Mjorniastar? Ikea may soon have your back. Their online used furniture portal is being tested in Madrid and Oslo.
"This has been a dream in the making for a while," Brodin told the Financial Times. "We are in a place in Ikea where we can do more advanced and cool stuff. There is an incredible confidence in the company evolving on digital."
The new marketplace is part of a transformation at Ikea over the past few years as it moves from being an out-of-town retailer where customers have to pick up and build their own furniture to a business offering online sales, city-center stores, and services such as assembly.
Ikea has had a small offering under which it buys used furniture from customers and resells it in store. But the new platform is more ambitious, aiming to tackle the secondhand market for customers selling directly to each other—an area where Brodin estimates Ikea has a higher market share than in new furniture sales.
Transformative.
Previously:
• Is the new Ikea record player any good?
• Ikea hiring people to serve virtual meatballs
• A horror novel that looks like an IKEA catalog
• Ikea locked workers into a room and forced them to watch 'scaremongering' anti-union powerpoints
Celebrate the 18th anniversary of downgrading Pluto to a "dwarf planet"
Jennifer Sandlin / 8:05 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
I grew up when Pluto was a planet. But, as you no doubt know, 18 years ago, on August 24, 2006, poor Pluto was downgraded from a regular ol' planet planet to a dwarf planet. KCRA explains that:
the International Astronomical Union voted to strictly define a planet, which ultimately downgraded Pluto from the ninth planet from the sun to a dwarf planet — causing controversy both scientifically and culturally.
I recently stumbled upon this awesome fan-created animation of Jonathan Coulton's song "I'm Your Moon," a surprisingly beautiful love song from Charon (Pluto's moon) to Pluto. Mike Young used photos from NASA and other sources to create the video, and the images, animation, music, and lyrics combine to form an incredibly sweet tribute to Pluto. Here's the first verse and the chorus:
They invented a reason
That's why it stings
They don't think you matter
Because you don't have pretty rings
I keep telling you I don't care
I keep saying there's one thing they can't change
I'm your moon
You're my moon
We go round and round
From out here, it's the rest of the world that looks so small
Promise me
You will always remember who you are.
Back in 2006, when Pluto was first downgraded, Jonathan Coulton wrote about the song on his blog:
A few people suggested I do a song about Pluto, and I thought it was a fine idea. It was turning around in my head last week when the first line of the chorus came to me, as if from deep space.
As you certainly know by now, Pluto is not a planet anymore. Just yesterday the International Astronomical Union made it official by redefining "planet." Pluto is a now considered a dwarf planet, along with a few other small, icy spherical things out there. Obviously very upsetting to Pluto. As you are also no doubt aware, Pluto's moon Charon is kind of unusual: it's about half the size of Pluto, which is pretty large for a moon. And it doesn't orbit around Pluto, they actually orbit around each other, faces locked, like dancers. You wouldn't be crazy to think of them as a double dwarf planet. What I'm getting to is this: Charon sings this song to Pluto.
Several years later he followed up with some updates about how much the song has meant to his fans:
This is one of those songs that a lot of people really latch onto. I just got a little weepy while listening to it because I thought of all the stories people have told me about singing it to their newborns and playing it at their weddings. I was just thinking about Pluto when I wrote it, but since it left my hands it's been infused with the essence of all these other relationships. And so now the Pluto thing really is just a metaphor, and when I hear it or sing it I think about all those real people feeling things. Which is awesome – I love hearing that songs of mine have taken up residence in people's emotional lives. That's the point of songs, isn't it?
If you've never heard "I'm Your Moon," definitely give it a listen. Maybe have your tissues handy, too.
Here's to Pluto and Charon! Enjoy the song and video!
Trump's handlers are afraid he can't STFU
Jason Weisberger / 7:29 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: a katz / shutterstock.com
The two campaigns argue over whether to leave mics hot during the debate. Trump's folks want them off.
The Harris campaign knows that their candidate is clearly in control of what she says and thinks before she speaks. Donald Trump's people show no such confidence. While Biden performed poorly in the last debate, Trump also gave a terrible performance and was likely held back by the mute button.
"We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates' mics should be live throughout the full broadcast," Brian Fallon, the Harris campaign's senior adviser for communications, said in a statement.
"Our understanding is that Trump's handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don't think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own. We suspect Trump's team has not even told their boss about this dispute because it would be too embarrassing to admit they don't think he can handle himself against Vice President Harris without the benefit of a mute button," he said.
Trump's campaign has argued that when they agreed to the ABC debate with Harris at the top of the ticket, they were agreeing to the same guidelines of the previous debate.
Previously:
• My money is on Trump weaseling out of these Presidential debates
• Marjorie Taylor Greene's performative recitation of the 'Why Trump already lost this debate' talking points
• Trump's preemptive excuse for debate flop: Biden's secret stash of hard drugs
• Doctors blame Biden's debate performance on drugs
WhistlinDiesel: "Cybertruck frames are snapping in half"
Jason Weisberger / 7:13 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
YouTuber WhistlinDiesel shows his Cubertruck snap and shares some stories and photos from others who have suffered similar critical failures.
This YouTuber shoves the problem in Tesla's face. Demonstrating that the testing he put his Cybertruck through should not have resulted in such a dangerous and critical fail, WhistlinDiesel also shows off the build quality of his other truck. As ann Angeleno, I was super entertained by the video's sponsor and his cameos. Los Angeles personal injury lawyer billboard wars escalate!
Previously:
• A first-hand account of how bad the Cybertruck is
• Man shows us the scary Cybertruck gas pedal that is causing a Tesla recall (video)
• After dangerous gas pedal fiasco, Cybertruck gets 2 more recalls (thanks, Elon!)
• Anaheim PD needs a CyberTruck to help with community outreach
• YouTuber notices 'one slight issue' with Cybertruck
Amazing timelapse of the northern lights as seen from the ISS
Gail Sherman / 7:02 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
ISS image: NASA
Matthew Dominick is a former test pilot, NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 mission commander, and a fantastic "amateur" astrophotographer. This gorgeous time-lapse captures a stunning aurora, the setting moon, and a brilliant sunrise.
NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick, commander of the SpaceX Crew-8 mission, shared a new timelapse of photos taken of Earth just before sunrise. This nighttime view includes auroras dancing through Earth's atmosphere, glittering stars, passing satellites and a brief meteor streak.
The timelapse was taken from inside of the Cupola module of the orbiting lab, with the robotic Canadarm2 seen in the foreground of the video. Dominick shared the new time-lapse in a post on X (formally Twitter) on July 21.
Here is a NASA video about Dominick:
Previously: Breathtaking time-lapse from the International Space Station
Mayor to sovereign citizen demanding private information about staff: "Go fuck yourself"
Rob Beschizza / 6:47 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Len Salt. Photo: Chris Twemlow (CC BY 3.0)
Len Salt, mayor of the sparsely-populated Thames-Coromandel District on the coast of New Zealand, offered a succinct reply to a sovereign citizen who requested private informationa about council staff:
Newshub reports that the message was sent on July 10, 2023, but only posted online a few days ago by Steve Hart, who had opposed Salt in 2022's mayoral race.
The email was requesting private information about council staff such as their names and addresses. "My official response, as Mayor of Thames-Coromandel District Council, to your request for personal details of staff names and addresses, is this. Go fuck yourself. Kind regards Len," Salt replied.
Salt explains himself:
"If people were to say this is not the language or decorum you expect from a mayor, I would take that criticism on the chin," Salt said. But I have always said to the council, and the community, I will protect them. In a climate of increasing hostility towards elected representatives and their staff, I believe it was necessary."
Though a satisfying response to pests who want to disrupt services, incur costs or harass workers, it would surely be cheaper and more ethical to just provide any relevant public records addressed by the request and deal with the problem when it actually happens. I don't know about New Zealand's FOIA equivalent but you'd think a "malicious compliance officer" to whom obstreperous requests are referred would be an easy hire. An enthusiastic one might be able to take care of several local authorities.
Meet Blueberry, the interior decorating Golden Retriever
Jennifer Sandlin / 6:24 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Image: LightField Studios / shutterstock.com
The next time I need help reimagining my indoor space, I know who to call—a cute and clever golden retriever dog named Blueberry, who his humans describe as a "5-year-old golden retriever, interior decorator, master pointer."
Blueberry has an eye for this sort of thing, as evidenced by this video, captured by his humans and uploaded on their social media accounts. Blueberry's humans explain that before discovering his talents, they "were wondering how the chairs kept moving around the house!"
In the video, we see Blueberry carefully rearranging furniture to make sure the vibe of the house is both inviting and aesthetically pleasing. Blueberry's sibling, Bella, is also there to supervise all of the challenging creative work. I think Blueberry and Bella have done a terrific job – and folks on social media agree. They said:
Leave them alone they are interior decorators
He felt your Feng's shui was off. The chair is better in the foyer haha
He's pushing it like he's about to give out snacks on the flight
He has a point, that corner does need something.
It's giving extreme makeover home edition
He's got a degree in interior design
How much does this moving service cost?
Personally, I can't wait to see Blueberry's next vision come to life!
Previously:
• Another collection of Golden Retrievers acting goofy
• Golden Retriever uses talking buttons to instruct his human
• Golden retriever politely waits in line at coffee truck, then orders himself a pup cup (video)
• Golden retriever goes from 'ick!' to best buddies with sick kitten in day-to-day clip (video)
$100m gift to the National Park Service is "transformative"
Rob Beschizza / 6:22 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Yosemite National Park. Image: f11photo/shutterstock.com
A $100 million gift to the country's national parks is the largest ever received, reports the National Park Service, and will have a "transformative" impact. It comes from Lilly Endowment, a philanthropic group established by the descendents of Eli Lilly, founder of the eponymous pharmaceutical giant.
The money will be used to address the needs of the country's more than 400 national park sites, said Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation.
The foundation hopes to announce the first round of grants stemming from the donation later this year, Shafroth said.
Exactly how the money will be utilized remains to be seen, but one of the foundation's priorities is restoring coral reefs at Biscayne National Park in Florida, Shafroth said, while another priority is the restoration of trout species in western national parks. Those are among the foundation's recent investments.
A variety of things have been proposed to help National Parks make money, ranging from debatable (golf courses, resorts, vinyards) to disagreeable (oil drilling, residential development) and this will quieten the pressure.
Previously:
• Trump exposes National Parks to oil company drilling
• United States National Parks are now free
• Government shutdown puts national parks in nightmare mode
• Some really fun posters of the Muppets celebrating the National Parks
• America's National Parks are for sale
• Preserving human history in a National Park
Right to disconnect law passes in Australia: workers may ignore after-hours messages
Rob Beschizza / 4:35 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Rudy Balasko/shutterstock.com
Aussies bothered their bosses at home can now rest assured they cannot be punished for ignoring such after-hours demands. Lawmakers there passed a "right to disconnect" bill designed to end the creep of work into home life—and an explosion of unpaid overtime.
Supporters say the law gives workers the confidence to stand up against the steady invasion of their personal lives by work emails, texts and calls, a trend that has accelerated since the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled the division between home and work. "Before we had digital technology there was no encroachment, people would go home at the end of a shift and there would be no contact until they returned the following day," said John Hopkins, an associate professor at Swinburne University of Technology.
Several countries have enacted similar bans on out-of-hours pestering, most prominently France, which recently fined a company 60,000 euros for requiring an employee to be on-call without pay.
Previously:
• The anxiety of unplugging and why we should disconnect to connect
• A web magazine you can read only if you turn off your wifi
• Singapore will disconnect entire civil service from the internet
Martin Shkreli ordered to surrender copies of Wu-Tang album
Rob Beschizza / 4:25 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin (left) and former owner Martin Shkreli (right)
Martin Shkreli paid a reported $2m for the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a beautiful artifact that he thereby agreed to make no copies, broadcasts or public performances of. He being a notorious fraud and drug price-hiker, though, these things were allegedly done anyway and consequences have resulted. The latest: he must surrender any copies he has in his possession, by court order.
… the Court issued a preliminary injunction as to Defendant Shkreli: (1) enjoining him from possessing, using, disseminating, or selling any interests in the Album, including its data and files, or in any way causing further damage to Plaintiff respecting the Album through this conduct; (2) ordering him to provide an inventory and accounting of the copies of the Album that he has retained and the individuals to whom he has distributed the data and files, and any attendant revenue; and (3) ordering him to turn over to his counsel all recordings of the Album's contents that Defendant possesses or controls. Written order to follow. In addition, the following deadlines were set: (1) by August 30, 2024, Defendant to file (A) affidavit from Defendant, under penalty of perjury, attesting that he has turned over all of his copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents to defense counsel, and no longer possesses any copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents, and (B) letter confirming that defense counsel has possession of said copies and contents; and (2) by September 30, 2024, Defendant to file an accounting, in the form of an affidavit by him, under penalty of perjury, identifying (A) all known copies, in any form, of the Album or its contents, (B) whether those copies were distributed, and if so, when, to whom, and how, and (C) the amounts, source, date, and nature of any proceeds, revenues, profits, or other financial benefits made by Defendant from his distribution or playing of the Album or its contents.
As for the original pressing itself, Shkreli forfeited it to Uncle Sam to pay off debts. It was subsequently auctioned off for $4m to that end, to the company now suing him over the leak. The album itself is of questionable provenance: Method Man complained that the recording was put together by RZA without significant participation by others in the collective and said "Fuck that album. … Give it to the people, if they want to hear the shit, let them have it."
Conviction for cop who threw smoke bomb at other cops on Jan 6
Rob Beschizza / 3:58 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Lee in Jan 6 footage
Justin Lee was a police officer in Montgomery County, Maryland, when he joined the rest of the MAGA mob on Jan 6, 2021 and rioted on Capitol Hill. He threw a smoke bomb at the cops defending it, and now U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden is getting ready to throw him in jail.
Lee, who remains free until his sentencing, didn't show any obvious reaction as the judge read aloud his verdict. His attorney declined to comment after the hearing.
After Lee's arrest last October, the police department said it had suspended him without pay. Department spokesperson Shiera Goff said police officials will be "moving ahead with termination procedures" now that Lee has been convicted.
Note the implication that he would have gotten to remain a cop had he not been convicted, despite there being no question at all about his activities that day, only whether he was criminally culpable for them: "Lee tossed the smoke bomb and three other 'rock-like objects' at officers guarding the tunnel. … Lee later joined other rioters in 'spotlighting' officers inside the tunnel with a flashlight."
Lee—taken off the beat after he shot dead a suspect in 2023, and only subsequently identified as a Jan 6 rioter— was convicted of two felonies: interfering with police and impeding officers. He was also convicted on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing. He was acquitted, though, on two misdemeanor charges of "engaging in physical violence." The AP reports that "McFadden ruled that prosecutors didn't present sufficient evidence that Lee committed an act of physical violence."
Previously:
• Pennsylvania woman who helped steal Nancy Pelosi's laptop on Jan. 6 sentenced to 3 years in prison
• Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes is sentenced to 18 years for Jan. 6 'seditious conspiracy'
• Proud Boy convicted in Jan 6 riot 'disappears' while awaiting sentencing
• 5 years in jail for Jan 6 rioter who injured cop
• Man who propped his legs on Nancy Pelosi's desk on Jan 6 found guilty
• Jan. 6 rioter who attacked Officer Michael Fanone with stun gun gets more than 12 years in prison
Telegram CEO arrested in France
Rob Beschizza / 2:07 am PT Mon Aug 26, 2024
Durov. Photo: Nick Lubushko CC BY-SA 4.0)
Pavel Durov, the CEO of private messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France this weekend and charged under various spectacular crimes—terrorism, pedophilia, fraud, etc.—on the rationale that the company's failure to police and moderate users amounts to complicity in crimes involving use of the platform.
Durov was travelling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France as part of a preliminary police investigation.
TF1 and BFM both said the investigation was focused on a lack of moderators on Telegram, and that police considered that this situation allowed criminal activity to go on undeterred on the messaging app.
Transiting through France seems to have been an error on his part, given the existence of an arrest warrant there.
Reportage so far is not great: not much context about Telegram that would allow readers to evaluate its claim to be a common carrier (it is widely used by Western politicians and journalists, for example, as well as criminals) or why Durov is a more likely target than others in his position. A specific flaw with coverage is Telegram being described as "encrypted," when in fact it is not accessibly so in the end-to-end sense that political debates over encryption usually concern. Matthew Green:
Telegram clearly fails to meet this stronger definition for a simple reason: it does not end-to-end encrypt conversations by default. If you want to use end-to-end encryption in Telegram, you must manually activate an optional end-to-end encryption feature called "Secret Chats" for every single private conversation you want to have. The feature is explicitly not turned on for the vast majority of conversations, and is only available for one-on-one conversations, and never for group chats with more than two people in them. … Overall this is quite different from the experience of starting a new encrypted chat in an industry-standard modern messaging application, which simply requires you to open a new chat window. While it might seem like I'm being picky, the difference in adoption between default end-to-end encryption and this experience is likely very significant. The practical impact is that the vast majority of one-on-one Telegram conversations — and literally every single group chat — are probably visible on Telegram's servers, which can see and record the content of all messages sent between users.
Previously:
• Telegram allows you to 'unsend' messages coming from either party, and has no time limit
• Telegram: ever since Russia's blocking demand, Apple has prevented us from updating our app
• Russia's fumbling, heavy-handed Telegram ban is a perfect parable about the modern internet's promise and peril
• The upside of big tech is Russia vs Telegram, but the downside is Cloudflare vs SESTA