Boing Boing, October 29, 2024
All our posts from the past 24 hours
Watch a clever mouse outsmart a mousetrap
Popkin / 11:27 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Watch a mouse out-smart the person who put a mousetrap and a piece of bait out on the floor. This mouse must have received a memo from the other critters in the house that snacks left out around the house are actually a trap and must be approached with extreme caution.
Not only does the mouse take the snack as delicately as possible, but it also hoists its body up onto the wall, as if to avoid putting any pressure on the trap. After the mouse has the snack in its mouth, it runs away as fast as possible, unscathed.
This clever mouse was well deserved of that treat. Many rodents can navigate mazes and solve complex problems. They often show an ability to learn through trial and error. They have excellent memories, especially when it comes to remembering locations of food sources and their habitats. Next time you want to kill a rodent, remember that rodents can show empathy and emotional responses to other members of their species, and are much smarter than many people realize. Perhaps it's better to just catch and release!
Exploring caffeine under a microscope
Popkin / 11:24 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
I'm not surprised at all by the way caffeine looks underneath a microscope. If I had to make a drawing of what I thought it might look like, this is probably close to what I'd imagine. I love how it actually looks energetic with all the rainbow, need-like structures surrounding it.
The way light bends (refraction) as it passes through caffeine crystals is absolutely striking, often resulting in a sparkle or glimmering effect. The crystals themselves are actually colorless and transparent, and the light that passes through them is what creates interesting visual effects when illuminated.
Although caffeine often gets a bad rap, it also has some alleged health benefits. Moderate caffeine intake has been linked to including improved cognitive function, enhanced physical performance, and a reduced risk of certain diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. I guess it's a good thing that I'm already on my 3rd cup of coffee today.
Morning routine of a person wearing a fishbowl on their head
Popkin / 11:21 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
We all have a different morning routine. Some people like to take their time waking up and drinking a few cups of coffee before starting their day. Others like to go for a morning walk to their local coffee shop. This person enjoys starting their day holding their breath instead of a water filled container that fits around their head like a fish bowl.
The best part about the video is the way that the fish bowl magnifies their features, making them look like a bobblehead figurine. I'm not sure if I should be concerned or impressed at their ability to casually hold their breath for so long during each take.
The sleeper even wears the water bowl during breakfast, trying to eat floating fruit that they drop into the water. I have trouble waking up most days, and perhaps, this may be just what I need to feel more alert in the morning.
NASA more than pays for itself, "generated $76bn" for U.S. economy last year
Rob Beschizza / 11:15 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
NASA's annual budget is $25.4bn. It generated $76bn of the U.S. economy last year, it claims. Clearly we are not giving NASA enough money!
NASA's latest economic impact report reveals that its activities contributed $75.6 billion to the U.S. economy in fiscal year 2023 — about three times the agency's budget for that year, which was $25.4 billion. The 400-page study breaks down how NASA activities — such as its Moon to Mars initiative, climate change research, technology development and more — generate economic output.
The Moon to Mars program alone created $23.8 billion in economic output and 96,479 jobs, while investments in climate research and technology contributed $7.9 billion and 32,900 jobs.
ASA Administrator Bill Nelson in a statement:
"To invest in NASA is to invest in American workers, American innovation, the American economy, and American economic competitiveness," says NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. "Our work doesn't just expand our understanding of the universe — it fuels economic growth, inspires future generations, and improves our quality of life. As we embark on the next great chapter of exploration, we are proud to help power economic strength, job creation, scientific progress, and American leadership on Earth, in the skies, and in the stars."
Additional key findings of the study:
✦ Every state in the country benefits economically through NASA activities. Forty-five states have an economic impact of more than $10 million. Of those 45 states, eight have an economic impact of $1 billion or more.
✦ The agency's Moon to Mars initiative, which includes the Artemis missions, generated nearly $2.9 billion in tax revenue. These activities provided about 32% of NASA's economic impact.
✦ The agency's investments in climate change research and technology generated more than $1 billion in tax revenue.
✦ Approximately 11% of NASA's economic impacts are attributable to its investments in climate change research and technology.
✦ NASA had more than 644 active international agreements for various scientific research and technology development activities in the 2023 fiscal year. The International Space Station, representing 15 countries and five space agencies, has a predominant role in the agency's international partnerships.
✦ In fiscal year 2023, NASA oversaw 2,628 active domestic and international non-procurement partnership agreements, which included 629 new domestic and 109 new international agreements, active partnerships with 587 different non-federal partners across the U.S., and partnerships in 47 of 50 states.
✦ NASA Spinoffs, which are public products and processes that are developed with NASA technology, funding, or expertise, provide a benefit to American lives beyond dollars and jobs. As of result of NASA missions, our fiscal year 2023 tech transfer activities produced 1,564 new technology reports, 40 new patent applications, 69 patents issued, and established 5,277 software usage agreements.
✦ Scientific research and development, which fuels advancements in science and technology that can help improve daily life on Earth and for humanity, is the largest single-sector benefitting from NASA's work, accounting for 19% of NASA's total economic impact.
NASA bullet points replaced with cute stars for emphasis.
Tip! The economy also runs on public investment.
Universal reveals amazing animatronic monsters
Ruben Bolling / 11:14 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Universal Orlando Resort recently announced the opening date for its third, brand new theme park, Epic Universe: May 22, 2025. And it just released a sneak peek of a few of the 14 animatronic monsters that will populate the ride in its Dark Universe section: "Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment."
They look amazing, and seem to represent a real breakthrough in animatronic technology. Their movements are so realistic, fluid, and quick. It will be fascinating to see what they look like in the context of the finished ride.
Universal describes the ride:
"'Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment'"' will take guests deep into the catacombs of Frankenstein Manor, where Dr. Victoria Frankenstein – the great-great-granddaughter of the infamous Henry Frankenstein – conducts her twisted and misguided experiments. In a vain display of her genius, she invites guests to witness a demonstration of her ability to control monsters – but her plans go awry when a horde of enraged monsters are unleashed. Guests then embark on a terrifying ride through the darkness as they try to evade Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon and more."
In addition to Dark Universe, which will feature classic Universal monsters, there will be four other themed areas in Epic Universe: Celestial Park; How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk; Super Nintendo World; and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.
Musk rooting for Trump to tank the economy
Jason Weisberger / 10:48 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Elon "Leon" Musk is well aware that Trump's policies will collapse the economy, but he believes it'll just teach average people to live with less.
Forgetting that he is a capitalist selling a luxury car, Pedo Guy thinks a collapsed economy will teach people to live with less. How much less does he intend to live with? Living in a small home but blowing $44 billion on a ketamine high-induced ego purchase isn't exactly austere.
"We have to reduce spending to live within our means. And that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity," Musk stated in the call, fully endorsing the strain Trump's policies would place on Americans. Musk's words make it clear that the disruption is not an unintended side effect but an accepted—if not desired—outcome. The billionaire went further by responding to an X (formerly Twitter) user who anticipated a market downturn if Trump's aggressive policies, including mass deportations and extreme deficit cuts, were enacted. The user predicted that with Trump and Musk in charge, the U.S. economy—dependent on debt and vulnerable to asset bubbles—would face a severe reaction before stabilizing under the intended austerity. Musk's response was a simple acknowledgment: "Sounds about right."
…
While previous leaders have avoided openly endorsing policies that might hurt working Americans, Musk's comments reveal a different approach, where short-term pain is not only acknowledged but welcomed. Critics argue that this plan—prioritizing austerity over growth—could destabilize the economy and deepen inequality, impacting essential services for millions of families who rely on public support. But Musk and Trump's perspective appears to frame these hardships as collateral damage in a broader strategy for "long-term prosperity."
Meanwhile, under the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. economy has seen record growth. This month, The Economist called the U.S. economy "the envy of the world" amid historic growth, low unemployment, and the lowest inflation of any nation in the G7. The major stock market continue to hit record highs on a near daily basis. Yet Trump and Musk want to replace this prosperity with pain.
Long-term prosperity for whom? Also, there is this:
Linus Torvalds: AI is 90% marketing, 10% reality
Rob Beschizza / 10:28 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
The creator and lead maintaner of Linux says AI is 90% marketing, 10% reality. Linus speaks for a lot of us, I think! That it's marketed as "AI" in the first place is a good example of what he's talking about.
During the highlighted interview segment, Torvalds attempted to see the potential in AI, but relentless industry hype is taking its toll. "I think AI is really interesting, and I think it is going to change the world. And, at the same time, I hate the hype cycle so much that I really don't want to go there," said the tech icon.
The Linux pioneer outlined his AI hype coping mechanism: "So my approach to AI right now is I will basically ignore it because I think the whole tech industry around AI is in a very bad position (grimaces)…" However, it seems like there is almost too much AI BS around for the Fin to tolerate, and it is currently "90% marketing and 10% reality." That's quite a ratio.
10% is a lot at the margins of marginal industries and trades.
I dislike AI and I use it daily. It makes me a lot faster at things I can already do, but I don't think it helps me do things I can't already do. I've taken to calling that the Slop Threshold, the point where the AI is doing something you could never do and your ability to perceive its inadequacies becomes suspect. The Slop Horizon might then be the point where someone—typically a technical gentleman posting images he declares to be art—been sucked into the Slop Hole without realizing they're in it. I'd tell you what the Slop Coefficient was but this paragraph has already ruined lunch.
Steve Bannon released from prison — and immediately hits War Room with a vengeance: "We're going to roll hard" (video)
Carla Sinclair / 10:14 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Well, that was fast. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon is a free man after spending four months in prison for ignoring congressional subpoenas related to the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack. And he returned with a vengeance, already spewing rage on his War Room podcast just hours after his release.
"The four months in prison not only didn't break me, it empowered me," the 70-year-old Trump-whisperer announced on his show, looking tan and rested. "I am more energized and more focused than I've ever been in my entire life."
"And I can see clearly, just like in 2016 and in 2020, exactly what went on here and what we have to do defeat it," Bannon said, laying out his "three phase" plan to crush the Democrats next week and advance the Big Lie that he helped to promote in 2020 before Donald Trump incited his angry mob to attack. "We're going to roll hard, and we don't care if they like it or don't like it. They're just going to have to accept it."
As of this writing, I can only find clips posted by MAGA hate-mongers I'd rather not link to. I did find one very short clip posted by GOTV PAC for you to check out (see video). For the rest, just do a quick search on X and you'll find him in all his glory.
CNN cuts away from Trump's fake press conference
Jason Weisberger / 10:13 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Mainstream media outlets should ignore Trump's calls for a press conference and let him issue a statement like President Biden did.
There is no reason for any media outlet to give Trump live time at one of his "press conferences." These events are low-energy, hateful, and lie-filled free campaign ads. The adjudicated rapist has passed on numerous opportunities to be interviewed on these outlets, which he refuses. Instead, they just let him say whatever he wants. CNN cut away today
.
Jim Acosta muted Trump amid a lengthy rant delivered at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, and turned instead to CNN fact checker Daniel Dale for an analysis.
"We have debunked that so many times," Acosta said of Trump's claim that he won the 2020 presidential election. "That is just an outright lie."
Dale detailed multiple falsehoods Trump had made on the topic of immigration, including the claim that President Joe Biden had named Vice President Kamala Harris to be his border czar.
Trump was also 90 minutes late to his "emergency" press conference.
Texas bigots cowardly sneaking threats on to yard signs
Jason Weisberger / 9:14 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Flyers signed "Sincerely, The Grand Dragon of Trump Klan #124; San Marcos, TX." have been appearing on political yard signs.
Some bigoted assholes are threatening folks for their yard signs. It seems this is a fairly common occurrence in San Marcos, Texas. These letters promise vengeance after Trump is returned to office; prior installments have been anti-semitic hate. Police, if they can find their klansmen, intend to charge them with a $4000 misdemeanor.
The flyers threaten that the reader has been identified and is now in the "National Database of miscreant Harris supporters," either by "social interactions with your neighbors who are on our investigations team, or by yard signs, or vehicle bumper stickers."
The flyers go on to say that "once the magnificent Donald Trump assumes the Presidency again," the reader will be audited by the IRS, going back to their first tax return, and "at a minimum — 4 years of painful misery and attorney's fees."
The flyers are signed, "Sincerely, The Grand Dragon of Trump Klan #124; San Marcos, TX."
SMPD said it is actively investigating the reports it has received and working to identify the people responsible.
Trump's campaign approved the racist comedian's routine
Jason Weisberger / 8:14 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
The Trump campaign reviewed the racist comedian's routine, nixed one joke, and then loaded up the teleprompter.
This is a place where the campaign will all don their Melania "Don't Care" jackets and shrug off offending an entire island filled with US citizens. All of their feigning of a lack of awareness is untrue, and they approved the message, or they wouldn't have let him get up there and tell the jokes.
However, it turns out that the disaster could have been an even bigger calamity. According to The Bulwark's Marc A. Caputo, the Trump campaign identified one "red flag" in the comedian's set that was nixed before the event.
"He had a joke calling [Vice President Kamala] Harris a 'cunt,'" a "campaign insider" told Caputo.
That's some real comedic genius.
Seriously, some spokesperson for Trump thinks that because their fascist policies get them called fascists, it is a license to attack and stereotype:
"Heading into the rally, we were called Nazis. Do voters really care about a comic telling a joke that offended people who weren't going to vote for us? No," said another campaign adviser.
DailyKos
The Orange Menace, of course, is doing his one famous dance move: denying he knows the comedian.
"I don't know him, someone put him up there," Trump told correspondent Rachel Scott. "I don't know who he is."
Behind the scenes: CNN panelist explains how MAGA guest got kicked off show — and banned from network (video)
Carla Sinclair / 8:08 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
A day after Donald Trump's hate-fueled rally in Madison Square Garden, far-right writer Ryan Girdusky felt emboldened to attack panelist Mehdi Hasan for being Palestinian, implying he was a terrorist by saying, "I hope your beeper doesn't go off." But he soon realized he was outside of the MAGA lair when chaos ensued on set (see video, posted by Acyn). And then Girdusky was kicked off the show. For good.
So what went down during the commercial break? As panelist Ashley Allison later explained on Instagram, "As soon as the segment ended, I pulled my phone out, and I started texting leadership at the network, saying this gentleman needs to be removed from the panel immediately."
Hasan had already taken off, no longer willing to engage with a toxic Trump-style bigot. And Allison said she couldn't imagine having to sit next to the vulgar gentleman for another 45 minutes "after he said such vile and disgusting things."
Fortunately, she didn't have to. As Allison explains, host Abby Phillip then told Girdusky he would have to leave the set. (See Allison's video here.)
CNN later put out a statement saying he would never be invited back to the network.
From CNN:
There is zero room for racism or bigotry at CNN or on our air. We aim to foster thoughtful conversations and debate including between people who profoundly disagree with each other in order to explore important issues and promote mutual understanding. But we will not allow guests to be demeaned or for the line of civility to be crossed. Ryan Girdusky will not be welcomed back at our network.
PDP-10 replica runs on a Raspberry Pi
Rob Beschizza / 7:30 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
DEC's PDP-10 was a svelte, compact computer from the 1960s—it didn't even need its own room, though it was strongly recommended for environmental reasons. Moreover, with an installed-and-running price tag under a million dollars it was cheaper than what you could get from IBM. Now, 60 years on, you can buy an adorable and functional replica kit for $400, though you'll need your own Raspberry Pi to stuff in it.
The PDP-10 was DEC's 1968 mainframe that became the ultimate hacker playground at the MIT AI Lab. The PiDP-10 is a modern replica, in the same line as my PiDP-11 and PiDP-8 kits. Basic soldering skills are required to build the kit. Or yo can choose the Assembled & Tested option. In both cases, you will need to insert your own Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, which runs the simulation behind the scenes! The Pi is not included in the kit.
No refrigerator-sized memory modules or whirring tapes needed—sadly.
PDP-10 replica kit: the PiDP-10 [Tindie]
Finally, a proper green iMac
Rob Beschizza / 7:11 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
Yesterday, Apple announced upgraded iMacs with the new M4 chip. It's a nice spec bump for an otherwise unchanged design—24" 4k display with a slim all-in-one form—and with 16GB as the M4's base memory configuration we're finally leaving behind that whole tier of entry-level Mac that ends up on Marketplace in 4 months because it's no fun to run a DAW or grade 4k video on 8GB. But they fixed one thing I disliked about previous M-series models: the pale and muted colors are now much more saturated. You can order a green iMac and the thing will be fucken' green—at least from behind.
The new iMac comes in seven vibrant colors, bringing fresh shades of green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue, alongside silver. The back of iMac features bold colors designed to stand out, while the front expresses subtle shades of the new palette so users can focus on doing their best work. Every iMac comes with a color-matched Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or optional Magic Trackpad, all of which now feature a USB-C port, so users can charge their favorite devices with a single cable.
People are mad at the mouse's charging hole still being underneath it, making it unusable while charging. I figure the reason for this is that it ensures the mouse is never depicted (let alone used) as a "wired" device. If you buy Apple stuff you're buying into the aesthetic, no point being salty about it.
Here's the old "green", below, for reference. It's not even green. Not even a "craftsman" green! It's barely even turquoise! Glad they fixed it.
Enjoy this high-resolution scan of postmortem human brain
Rob Beschizza / 6:48 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
It's too late for Lenin, but the University of Pennsylvania's high-resolution MRI scan of a dead person's brain is full of detail.
Ex vivo MRI of the brain provides remarkable advantages over in vivo MRI for visualizing and characterizing detailed neuroanatomy, and helps to link microscale histology studies with morphometric measurements. However, automated segmentation methods for brain mapping in ex vivo MRI are not well developed, primarily due to limited availability of labeled datasets, and heterogeneity in scanner hardware and acquisition protocols. In this work, we present a high resolution of 135 ex vivo post-mortem human brain tissue specimens scanned on a 7T whole-body MRI scanner. We developed a deep learning pipeline to segment the cortical mantle by benchmarking the performance of nine deep neural architectures. We then segment four subcortical structures (caudate, putamen, globus pallidus, and thalamus), white matter hyperintensities, and the normal appearing white matter. We show excellent generalizing capabilities across whole brain hemispheres in different specimens, and also on unseen images acquired at different magnetic field strengths and different imaging sequence. We then compute volumetric and localized cortical thickness measurements across key regions, a link them with semi-quantitative neuropathological ratings. Our code, containerized executables, and the processed datasets are publicly available.
I like that the YouTube video is titled "teaser," like it's a cuisine channel for zombies. There are lots of delicious images in the paper, Automated deep learning segmentation of high-resolution 7 T postmortem MRI for quantitative analysis of structure-pathology correlations in neurodegenerative diseases, which may be read on Arxiv. My own half-dead brain initally processed the first phrase in the one below as "meat thickness."
Robyn Hitchcock and Emma Swift to host livestream fundraiser for indie rocker Matthew Sweet
Jennifer Sandlin / 6:35 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
We recently brought you news of beloved indie rocker Matthew Sweet's stroke and Go Fund Me campaign, which has already raised $435,000, soaring past both its initial goal of $200,000 and its revised goal of $400,000. As many of you mentioned in the boards, and I wholeheartedly agree, the fact that anyone—never mind a supremely talented and successful musician—should have to set up a Go Fund Me to pay for medical care should be considered shameful. Boing Boing's own Thom Dunn insightfully stated that:
. . . it should be a god damn indictment on the awfulness of the music industry. Would it really kill the labels to even offer healthcare subsidies, so people like this don't have to push their bodies to the breaking point in their 60s and still have no support to fall back on?
And Gracchus agreed:
And, more generally, an indictment of the healthcare system to which Americans are subjected. None of these heartwarming crowdfunding efforts would be necessary if the U.S. had some version of single-payer universal for its citizens.
In the meantime, we're stuck with raising money, sadly. And it sounds like Matthew will need more, as his recovery could take up to a year or longer, which Matthew's manager Russell Carter revealed in this update on October 25:
Matthew is checked in and has already had a successful but tough first couple of days at the rehabilitation and therapy hospital back home in Omaha. After going through several rounds of testing and evaluations, we're thrilled to report he's begun physical and speech therapy. His doctors have told us with reasonable certainty that Matthew will need to remain in the hospital's care until early December at the soonest when he will then transfer to home care with a professional caretaker. That next stage of outpatient therapy will last anywhere from six months to a year. Furthermore, the doctors have told us he'll have to convert a den into a bedroom on the first floor of his house and upgrade the adjacent bathroom to be ADA compliant.
We've heard from many friends, fans, and doctors in the last few days who have shared stories of stroke victims who, over time and with perseverance, have made full recoveries. This is very heartening for all of us to hear. Our gratitude for the deluge of kindness and generosity toward Matthew in the last 72 hrs. is immense.
The chart posted at Matthew's bedside gives his basic vitals and measurement along with his primary therapy goal. Matthew's goal is not to walk and talk – it reads very clearly in black sharpie, "my goal is to play guitar and sing and make art". He is very determined and we all can put faith in that!
In the spirit of helping a fellow musician and friend, English musician Robyn Hitchcock—described on his website as a "truly one-of-a-kind artist – surrealist rock 'n' roller, iconic troubadour, guitarist, poet, painter, and performer"—will be hosting a fundraiser for Sweet. Hitchcock announced on his social media that the next "Live from Tubby's House" will be on November 13 and will feature Hitchcock and his partner, Australian-born songwriter Emma Swift, who blends "classic folk, Americana and indie rock" in her music. In 2020, she released "Blonde On the Tracks," an album of interpretations of Bob Dylan songs that garnered "Best of 2020" praise from Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and more. It was produced by Pat Sansone of Wilco fame (and before that, decades ago, one of my favorite bands to see live in Jackson and Hattiesburg, Mississippi—Beagle Voyage).
During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, Hitchcock and Swift began hosting "Live From Sweet Home Quarantine" livestream series, during which they performed weekly sets joined by their two cats, Ringo and Tubby. The fundraiser for Sweet will be hosted on the website StageIt, which is an "online venue where artists perform live, interactive, monetized shows for their fans directly from a laptop, offering fans unique experiences that are never archived."
I saw Robyn Hitchcock perform with another one of my favorite musicians, Billy Bragg, years ago, and they were both terrific. I'll definitely be tuning in to this fundraiser for Matthew Sweet. If you want to watch, too, here's the link. The site says that the show is 30 minutes, starting at 6:00 pm PST on November 13. It's donation based, and while the price states "pay what you can," the suggested donation is "50 notes" which equals a mere $5.00 (According to the StageIt website, "Notes are StageIt's currency. 10 Notes = $1.00 USD. Use them to tip performers or buy tickets to shows"). And surely half an hour with Hitchcock and Swift—with proceeds going to Matthew Sweet—is worth way more than that.
Register and tune into the livestream here. And to give to Matthew Sweet's Go Fund Me, here's the link.
Fixing McDonald's ice cream machines is no longer a felony
Thom Dunn / 6:29 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
It's a truth universally acknowledged that McDonald's McFlurry ice cream machines are broken more often than not. As of this very writing, there's about a 15 percent failure rate across the entire United States, according to McBroken.
In 2023, the folks at iFixit tried to figure out the source of the problem—which turned out to largely be an issue of copyright law:
Did you know that when an ice cream machine is "broken," it's often just software getting in the way? Locked behind passwords and cryptic error messages, even a simple fix can become an expensive technician call-out.
Taylor, the manufacturer of these machines, keeps a tight lock on error codes and manuals. This leads to frequent, pricey service calls, making up a significant chunk of their profits.
Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it would technically be a felony to try and fix one of those McFlurry machines without the manufacturer's involvement, as doing so would require you to tamper with their technology and circumvent their protections beyond the terms of service.
Fortunately, the US Copyright Office does offer some exceptions to the Draconian policies contained within the DMCA. iFixit, along with advocacy group Public Knowledge, not only pursued this avenue—now, it seems, they've won!
From PublicKnowledge:
Today, the U.S. Copyright Office partially granted an exemption requested by Public Knowledge and iFixit to allow people to circumvent digital locks in order to repair commercial and industrial equipment. The Office did not grant the full scope of the requested exemption, but did grant an exemption specifically allowing for repair of retail-level food preparation equipment – including soft serve ice cream machines similar to those available at McDonald's. The Copyright Office reviewed the request as part of its 1201 review process, which encourages advocates and public interest groups to present arguments for exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Public Knowledge Senior Policy Counsel Meredith Rose added that:
Today's recommendations are a victory for everyone: franchise owners, independent repair shops, and anyone who's had to bribe their kids with a chilly treat on lengthy road trips. It's been a long and rocky road to secure a right to repair, and while there are plenty of dips and twists ahead, today's decision from the Copyright Office will lead to an overdue shake-up of the commercial food prep industry. There's nothing vanilla about this victory; an exemption for retail-level commercial food preparation equipment will spark a flurry of third-party repair activity and enable businesses to better serve their customers.
While we are disappointed that the Register recommended a narrower exemption than we had proposed, this does not soften our enthusiasm. We will continue to chip away at half-baked laws blocking the right to repair, sprinkling consumer victories as we go. Today's win may not be parfait, but it's still pretty sweet.
Get it? It's sweet? Cuz it's ice cream?
Unfortunately, the ruling exempts retail-level food equipment, which means that commercial and industrial-scale equipment is still locked down under the DMCA.
You can read the full ruling here. In the meantime, you can celebrate by finding a local McDonald's with a functioning McFlurry machine (though you may want to wait for that deadly E. coli breakout to die down first).
US Copyright Office "frees the McFlurry," allowing repair of ice cream machines [Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica]
Public Knowledge, iFixit Free the McFlurry, Win Copyright Office DMCA Exemption for Ice Cream Machines [Shiva Stella / Public Knowledge]
Vatican announces anime girl mascot
Rob Beschizza / 6:22 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
The Vatican in Rome has announced its official anime mascot for the 2025 Jubilee. I looked it up to make sure it was real. Her name is "Luce"—has she not the beauteous semblance? The light in her eyes makes me think of a child's hands raised in protest.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the Vatican's chief organizer for the jubilee, described the mascot as part of the Vatican's goal to engage with "the pop culture so beloved by our young people."
The mascot will debut this week at the Lucca Comics and Games, Italy's celebrated convention for all things comics, video games, and fantasy, where the Vatican's Dicastery for Evangelization will host a space dedicated to "Luce and Friends."
It will be the first time that a Vatican dicastery participates in a comics convention. Fisichella, who serves as the the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization's section for the new evangelization, said he hopes taking part in the convention "will allow us to speak to younger generations about the theme of hope, which is more central than ever in the evangelical message."
Here she is with her friends.
These interactive maps show how hard it is find abortion access in different states
Thom Dunn / 6:00 am PT Tue Oct 29, 2024
The highlight of the piece is six real-life stories which depict six individual abortion journeys across six different US states. These stories illustrate the heartbreak and brutal pain that can often accompany a person's choice to pursue an abortion—like in the case of Courtney in Tennessee, who was already a mother of three when she discovered that she had an ectopic pregnancy, despite being on birth control.
Not all the stories end with a lengthy hospital stay or permanently damaged body parts. Some of them take place in states where abortion access is supposed to be easy—or at least, easier. Even then, the religious affiliations of medical providers and the lack of education around things like trans healthcare can make for a massively complicated hassle.
While I do wish that the Pudding was able to find and recreate 50 (or more) abortion stories for every single US state (and/or territory), I also recognize that that would be an enormous feat. Still, the interactivity that's presented here is powerful enough to show just how costly abortion bans can be—emotionally, and financially.
It should be enough to remind you that no government should be preemptively deciding who gets to do what with their bodies, or prescribe healthcare choices from on-high with no consideration for the long-term damage it can do to peoples' bodies, their families, and themselves.
The United States of Abortion Mazes [Jan Diehm & Michelle Pera-McGhee / The Pudding]
Unhinged Trump shows he is very threatened by Michelle Obama
Jason Weisberger / 5:17 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
Convicted felon Donald Trump is very afraid of the former First Lady and is so upset by the truth she shared that he foolishly threatened some sort of retribution.
No one will be shocked that a powerful Black woman speaking the truth about what Donald Trump stands for scares the living hell out of him. Vice President Harris cowed the Orange Menace so badly, during their one debate, he has refused to face her again. Fox News must have aired a few moments of Michelle Obama speaking the other night, as somehow the convicted felon is quaking in his boots.
This is how the criminal reacted:
Donald Trump is disgusting.
Married to a MAGA bully? Then just vote for Harris in 'Secret' says new Lincoln Project ad (video)
Carla Sinclair / 4:48 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
If anti-Trump Republicans like Mitt Romney and Mike Pence aren't courageous enough to endorse Kamala Harris, how can we expect an anti-Trump voter married to a trigger-happy MAGA bully to speak up? Well, in the voting booth she doesn't have to, says a new Lincoln Project ad called "Secret."
The ad begins with two couples who are friends with each other stepping out of their cars to vote. Out of earshot of the women, one of the men asks the other if he's still voting for Trump. "Hell yeah," his buddy replies.
"What about your wife?" the MAGA man asks. "She doesn't like him," the friend says with a heavy sigh. "But she's votin' for him," he insists. The first says his wife is doing the same. Or so he thinks.
What neither man realizes is that these women, when left alone in their voting booths, have other plans. They glance at each other with knowing looks. They smirk. One of them mouths out the word, "Kamala." Other women begin to look around, and it's soon clear they are all in on the "Secret" — the name of the ad — as they all fill in the Kamala Harris bubble. (See video, posted by the Lincoln Project.)
"Only you need to know who you vote for. Just ask Melania," says the caption on the ad's YouTube page, poking fun at Melania Trump's obvious disdain for her husband. While a few comments found the ad to be offensive, most commenters, including a lot of men, applauded the message, which, sadly but most likely, targets a real demographic.
Philadelphia DA sues Musk over million-dollar voter incentive scheme
Ellsworth Toohey / 4:45 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
Two benefits of being the richest person on the planet:
Everything feels like it is free
Nothing is illegal
Elon Musk created a lottery awarding daily $1,000,000 cash prizes to people in swing states who sign a petition supporting First and Second Amendment rights. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a feeble warning that Musk's giveaway may violate federal election laws against buying votes, but it long ago revealed itself frightened of rich loudmouths like Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Timid Merrick Garland won't make a move for two or three years. By that time, Trump will be the U.S. strongman, and his attorney general, Don Junior, will be too busy prosecuting the enemy within (aka anyone without a MAGA crucifix tattoo on their hand or forehead) to do anything about it.
That leaves braver souls to step up to stop the Skipping Dipshit, like Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. In his lawsuit against Musk, Krasner said, "America PAC and Musk are lulling Philadelphia citizens — and others in the Commonwealth (and other swing states in the upcoming election) — to give up their personal identifying information and make a political pledge in exchange for the chance to win $1 million. That is a lottery. And it is indisputably an unlawful lottery,"
"Running an illegal lottery and violating consumer protections is ample basis for an injunction and concluding that America PAC and Musk must be stopped, immediately, before the upcoming presidential election on November 5," Krasner said in the suit. "If not enjoined, their lottery scheme will irreparably harm Philadelphians — and others in Pennsylvania — and tarnish the public's right to a free and fair election."
Courthouse News has the story. But why bother reading it? Musk will tell his legal team to text a poop emoji to Krasner, and that will settle the matter.
Tesla owner saddened by depreciation
Jason Weisberger / 2:05 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
An EV YouTuber who just had to have a Tesla Plaid S is unhappy to learn that the car's value fell $94k after two years of use.
YouTuber Kyle is sad that his Tesla feels like it's falling apart and that it is only worth $46k. He has put a decent amount of miles on it, but Tesla's desperation to make its quarterly numbers seems more at fault.
Conner's 2022 Model S Plaid cost a whopping $140,940 after options and fees to buy. Since the car was delivered he has driven it an impressive 37,191 miles. A recent tweet on Twitter from Kyle shows Tesla's trade-in value for the car is a paltry $46,400. In just two short years the car's value has tanked $94,540, or $2.54 per mile in depreciation.
Teslas are particularly hard hit by depreciation for a number of reasons. Chief among them is that Tesla continues to drop the prices of its cars to help drive sales in futile attempts to meet quarterly goals. The Model S Plaid's price has fallen to just $89,990 in the time since Conner purchased his example. I get mad when I purchase a pair of jeans for $50 and they go on sale the next week for $45, I would be irrationally pissed if I bought a new car and then the price went down 26 percent the next year.
The used car values of Teslas are tanking in part because fewer people are interested in being seen as Tesla owners. Between Tesla CEO Elon Musk's descent into 1930s Germany-style fascism, his continued lies, and his extremely weird divorced guy energy, he's just not someone a lot of people want to associate with in 2024. And that's on top of the terrible long-term quality of the cars the company builds. Conner himself admits that his Model S Plaid "feels like it's falling apart."
Candace Owens not welcome in Australia — visa denied
Carla Sinclair / 1:52 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
MAGA darling Candace Owens was all set to spew her fascist rhetoric across Australia — until the folks down under denied her visa request.
"Australia's national interest is best served when Candace Owens is somewhere else," Australia's Immigration Minister Tony Burke wisely said, via Meidas Touch. "From downplaying the impact of the Holocaust with comments about Joseph Mengele through to claims that Muslims started slavery, Candace Owens has the capacity to incite discord in every direction."
This comes after she proved to be too toxic even for the likes of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro's far-right media spinner that fired Owens in March for her relentless anti-semitic remarks.
It looks like the stable genius, who in July proudly announced she was "not a round Earther" — will be a no-show for the Australian portion of her speaking tour, which was set to begin in Melbourne on November 17. Those lucky Australians.
From Meidas Touch:
A spokesperson for Owens told the NY Post that she will address this on her podcast tomorrow. She previously did her show as part of Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire channel, but was fired in March by Shapiro after she liked a post on social media that said that Jewish Rabbis drink the blood of Christians, among other comments.
Owens also suggested in 2021 during the worst of Covid that the US should invade Australia to liberate them from their tyrannical government. That also may not have helped her cause.
Online comic exposes creepy details of Project 2025's MAGA agenda
Mark Frauenfelder / 1:23 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
One of my all-time favorite books is Michael Goodwin and Dan Burr's Economix: How Our Economy Works (and Doesn't Work). It's a 300-page comic book about the history of economics. It was a real eye-opener for me.
Michael and Dan just posted a new free online comic called "What is Project 2025? And Why is it Bad?" Michael read all 900 pages of the Heritage Foundation's creepy blueprint for a MAGA Christian theocracy (he says, "I wish I hadn't. It's one of the scariest things I've ever seen,") boiling it down to 21 pages.
Here are a couple of sample pages that will either whet your appetite for more, or make you too afraid to read the full comic:
Pizzeria apologizes for unintentionally serving "pot pies" contaminated with THC
Allan Rose Hill / 12:25 pm PT Mon Oct 28, 2024
The proprietors of Famous Yeti's Pizza of Stoughton, Wisconsin have apologized for serving pizzas last week that had been "contaminated" with THC.
"We want to be sure anyone who has this pizza on hand throws it away so they don't get sick," Bonnie Armstrong, director of environmental health at Public Health Madison & Dane County said in a statement. "If you ate the pizza and are experiencing THC-related symptoms, please contact your health care provider or call 911 if your symptoms worsen."
The issue came to light when emergency service workers reported to the health department that they "had transported multiple people with similar symptoms who all reported eating at Famous Yeti's Pizza."
After investigating, it was determined that the oil used to make the pizza "tested positive for THC." Famous Yeti's said that the contamination wasn't intentional, and we can probably believe them as they didn't charge more money for the, er, pot pies. From their statement quoted by WGNTV:
After receiving reports from staff, Yeti's owner, and employees of unexplained physical reactions, we underwent an investigation with the Stoughton Police and the local health officials. Today it was confirmed that pizza had been sold with dough mistakenly prepared with Delta9 contaminated oil. The oil accidentally used in the product originated from a shared storage space in the on-site cooperative commercial kitchen. We want to assure you that all affected products have been destroyed. Famous Yeti's is working closely with local authorities to improve our storage and security protocols to prevent this from happening again and to guarantee the safety of our customers. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or harm caused.