Back in December, ProPublica published a fascinating look into the snake-oil industry around Scientific Content Analysis or SCAN, a so-called "law enforcement tool" that purports to help investigators determine whether their suspects lying. This highly-profitable yet totally-dubious training method works through a rigid grammar analysis that relies entirely on the assumption that human brains only ever work in one completely uniform, logical, rational, conscious, and deliberate manner:

With SCAN, Sapir encourages the asking of a simple, open question: What happened? After the person writes a statement, the SCAN investigator looks for signs of deception, analyzing, among other things, pronouns used, changes in vocabulary, what’s left out and how much of a statement is devoted to what happened before, during and after an event. Indications of truthfulness include use of the past tense, first-person singular (“I went to the store”); pronouns, such as “my,” which signal commitment; and direct denials, the best being: “I did not do it.” Signs of deception include lack of memory, spontaneous corrections and swapping one word in for another — for example, writing “kids” in one place and “children” in another.

[…]

Sapir likens SCAN to Sudoku, only with words, not numbers, sentences, not squares: “Everything must fit — left to right, and top to bottom.”

And of course, there's no consideration for the possibility that someone might be, idunno, nervous or anxious or god forbid under-educated and therefore might respond to this "test" in ways that seem arbitrarily "suspicious."

Yet there are still tons of cops who swear by it anyway — even though, as ProPublica reveals through a comprehensive analysis of SCAN test results, the system has about a 50 percent likelihood of accurately predicting whether a suspect is lying, which is … no better than a random guess. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/hIvhaEN4mEs/this-popular-police-mindread.html

Mistaking an open fishtank for a bench in a restaurant, a man on a phone takes a seat there to have a conversation. Unfortunately neither the surface tension of the water nor the man's natural buoyancy are sufficient to keep him from plunging in.

Image: LiveLeak Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/siZL_07tT-E/gentleman-on-iphone-sits-on-op.html

Apparently there's been a rash of fraudulent text messages informing recipients that they have been drafted in the United States Army and they should call the recruiting office immediately. I'd bet that the phone number is actually an international toll call and most of the fees go to the scammer, like the common "one-ring call" scams. From the US Army Recruiting Command:

The decision to enact a draft is not made at or by U.S. Army Recruiting Command. The Selective Service System, a separate agency outside of the Department of Defense, is the organization that manages registration for the Selective Service.

"The Selective Service System is conducting business as usual,” according to the Selective Service System’s official Facebook page. “In the event that a national emergency necessitates a draft, Congress and the President would need to pass official legislation to authorize a draft."

And of course that's highly unlikely, right? RIGHT?!?

image: Maj. Jessica Rovero Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/xBrZlPU8J1M/that-text-informing-you-that-y.html

Jimmy Kimmel started out last night's monologue by complaining how difficult it is to cancel a subscription to an app on the iPhone. He's right. There should be a menu option accessible from every subscription app that lets you cancel on the spot.

He moves on to talking about Arizona GOP Rep. Paul Gosar, a singularly unsavory Trump Chump who recently tweeted a realistic photo of Obama and the president of Iran together, even though the two never met. When he got called out for posting the fraudulent photo without disclosing it was fake, he had a peevish hissy fit about his right to artistic expression.

Here's Kimmel's take on Gosar (transcript courtesy The Daily Beast):

In response to the many reporters and others on Twitter who pointed out the error, Gosar tweeted, “No one said this wasn’t Photoshopped. No one said the president of Iran was dead. No one said Obama met with Rouhani in person.”

“Well, OK then!” Kimmel shot back “‘No one said this wasn’t Photoshopped?’ Is that the standard now? You can post whatever you want and leave it to us to figure out if it’s Photoshopped? Because if that’s the case I have a photo of Paul Gosar being spanked by Jared from Subway that I would like a lot of people to see.”

Then Kimmel shared another “real photo” of President Donald Trump “happily shaking tiny hands with the guy who ordered the murder of a reporter for the Washington Post.” He helpfully added, “That is not Photoshopped.”

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Nl9PvFkxSms/jimmy-kimmel-pokes-fun-at-cong.html

In A Public Service, activist/trainer Tim Schwartz presents the clearest-ever guide to securely blowing the whistle, explaining how to exfiltrate sensitive information from a corrupt employer -- ranging from governments to private firms -- and get it into the hands of a journalist or public interest group in a way that maximizes your chances of making a difference (and minimizes your chances of getting caught).

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/NUoz_APHwBE/speak-the-truth.html

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/VxmlvubQfus/trump-sniffed-58-times-during.html

A Ukrainian International Airlines (UIA) flight crashed shortly after it took off from Imam Khomeini International Airport near Tehran yesterday. All 176 people on the plane died.

The first reports about the crash put the blame on mechanical error. But several aviation experts now think the plane was shot down, according to The Independent:

While some aviation experts said it was too early to speculate, the OPS group, an aviation risk monitoring group, said: “We would recommend the starting assumption to be that this was a shootdown event, similar to MH17 – until there is clear evidence to the contrary," highlighting photos of the crash site which they said "show obvious projectile holes in the fuselage and a wing section."

OPS Group has photos that show holes in the plane's wings, which it says are signs the plane was shot down.

Image: by Kambui - Ukraine International Airlines - UIA Boeing 737-528 UR-GAT, CC BY 2.0, Link Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/zK5Q00H1two/aviation-experts-think-the-ira.html

Last year, the almost entirely charred remains of Boleskine House, occultist Aleister Crowley's infamous digs on the shores of Loch Ness in Scotland that Jimmy Page later owned, went up for sale. Just days after Keith and Kyra Readdy purchased the property, the remaining wing burned in a fire. The Readdys have now established the charitable organization Boleskine House Foundation to restore the storied structure and use it "to promote education on the heritage of the house, to welcome the enjoyment of its structure and surrounding gardens, and to help to generate awareness of health and wellness." To raise funds, they're selling bits of the burnt house on eBay for lb35.00 to lb49.00 with a certificate of authenticity.

From the Inverness-Courier:

Mr Readdy (37), described on the foundation’s website as having had a career in property management and hospitality, said: “Boleskine has such a big draw, whether people are fans of Crowley or rock and roll.

“The Boleskine estate is a treasure of heritage and history that must be secured for future generations. I believe it can stand as a landmark for culture, research, and well-being that all can benefit from.”

image from: "Crowley, A. Manifesto of the M/M/M, Ballatyne Press, 1912" (public domain) Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/vRdR1fAvObg/now-on-ebay-burnt-bits-of-ale.html

“Getting ratio’d, getting dunked on, the dynamics that happen that we think aren’t as healthy are definitely part of... our thinking about this.”

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/vWtjDuKo-BM/twitter-to-add-conversation.html

My 16-year-old daughter is fascinated by the Rasputin, the "Mad Monk," who was born into poverty in 1869 and became an influential and charismatic power player in Russian politics. Here's a TED-Ed video that recounts his life in five minutes.

Image: YouTube Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/x19iZsJYOE0/a-short-video-history-of-raspu.html

Back in 2017, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) approved the most controversial standard in its long history: Encrypted Media Extensions, or EME, which enabled Netflix and other big media companies to use DRM despite changes to browsers extensions that eliminated the kinds of deep hooks that DRM requires.

At the time, the Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that, by approving its first non-unanimous standard, the W3C would give control over browser design to the big browser companies, and two years later, that warning has fully proven out.

First, Google -- whose proprietary technology must be licensed in most cases if you want to make a new browser -- stopped permitting open source browsers to use its DRM technology, effectively requiring all new browsers to be proprietary.

Now, Microsoft and Apple -- the remaining two vendors who can also supply the proprietary components that Google won't license -- have effectively stopped answering the phone when small browser creators call. Microsoft might let you license its tools if you pay them $10,000 to submit an application and then $0.35 for every browser you ship.

Samuel Maddock has been trying to create a rival "indie" browser, and has been to each of the EME DRM vendors and has been sent away by all of them.

The W3C's mission is to create an Open Web Platform" so that "everyone has the right to implement a software component of the Web without requiring any approvals or waiving license fees." When EME was approved, we warned that they were effectively ending the Open Web era by putting every future browser developer at the mercy of three giant incumbent browser developers. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/hepNOIBPHYc/rip-open-web-platform.html

Wow, this blew up and imploded and tried to disappear quickly and totally did not disappear at all.

Not sure what happened, but -- a TEEN VOGUE piece that breathlessly touted all the wonderful things FACEBOOK is doing to ensure the integrity of our 2020 elections was published, and not identified as sponsored editorial content. Then, a label was added. And finally, the piece was taken down altogether.

Now, Facebook says it was *not* sponsored editorial content?

And Sheryl Sandberg Facebooked it.

Here's the story in 4 images.

Part 1:

Then, moments later, after being dragged by media-watchers on Twitter...

But not for long! Within less than one hour...

We hardly knew ye. But still! Sheryl Sandberg didn't get the memo, and promoted the piece on her Facebook page, as if it was editorial content that they totally didn't pay for at all or influence at all, nope.

Too much.

Here's what people were saying while the whole thing unfolded on Wednesday morning, on Twitter.

- Teen Vogue runs Facebook story people think is sponsored content- Adds note saying its sponcon- Then removes note- FB denies to me that it's sponcon- Teen Vogue tweets "literally idk," then deletes tweet- Entire article suddenly disappears- ????https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF

 Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020

interesting pivot for Teen Vogue here to… Facebook PR? https://t.co/9piUkJOHYW

 Steven Perlberg (@perlberg) January 8, 2020

fwiw, FB disputes this. Says it's a "purely editorial" story, not sponcon https://t.co/tLeSZYgAgF

 Rob Price (@robaeprice) January 8, 2020

Some weird things going on with this Teen Vogue story I’m seeing lots of Facebook employees share today https://t.co/lveRoORpaa

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/UXeOr_s2LA8/teenvogue-facebook-sponsored-c.html

The Boeing 737 Next Generation has a gnarly bug: on instrument approach to seven specific runways, the six cockpit display units used to guide the pilots to their landing go suddenly black and they remain black until the pilots choose a different runway to land on.

The FAA has ordered Boeing to fix its software.

The seven affected runways are: Pine Bluffs, WY; Wayne County, OH; Chippewa County, MI; Cavern City, NM; Barrow, AK; La Mina, La Guajira, Colombia; and Cheddi Jagan, Georgetown, Guyana.

Yesterday, a 737-800 crashed on a flight from Iran to Ukraine, killing 167 passengers and nine crew members.

Boeing's 737 Max has been plagued by software errors that have led to the aircraft being grounded around the world. A whistleblower claims that the Boeing 787s are also unsafe due to negligence and fraud by the company.

The FAA received reports earlier this year of three incidents of display electronic unit (DEU) software errors on Model 737 NG airplanes flying into runway PABR in Barrow, Alaska. All six display units (DUs) blanked with a selected instrument approach to a runway with a 270-degree true heading, and all six DUs stayed blank until a different runway was selected. The Integrated Standby Flight Display (ISFD) and Heads-Up-Display (HUD) remained operational during this failure of the primary flight displays. The investigation has traced the behavior to a combination of common display system (CDS) block point (BP) 15 software in the DEUs and U12 or later software in the flight management computer (FMC).

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/Gi4SboAgt-0/737-ng.html

The University of North Florida is the latest customer of the Pizza ATM, an automated vending machine. The machine costs around $60,000. From the Florida Times-Union:

Brook Adams, senior executive chef for UNF’s Dining Services, said they make the pizza dough and shred the cheese from scratch daily in the campus kitchen.

“It’s all fresh toppings. Everything is absolutely fresh. There is no frozen pizza or anything going into the machine, Adams said.

After assembling the uncooked pizzas, they are placed into boxes with a bar code identifying the toppings and loaded into refrigerated storage shelves in the back of the vending machine.

Students use a touch-screen to select the pizza they want, pay for it and the machine then grabs the pizza from the refrigerated storage area and puts it into one of the machine’s two infrared ovens, Adams said.

“It cooks in about 3 minutes 45 seconds and dispenses it out to the student,” said Adams, noting the pizzas cost about $8.50 to $9 each, depending on the toppings.

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/GWw5GQLym7M/university-installs-pizza-vend.html

This is the future, I guess.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro went on Facebook Wednesday to livestream himself observing U.S. President Donald Trump’s speech on Iran.

Oh, the stupidity.

From Bloomberg Business:

After a few minutes of the video showing Bolsonaro apparently taking notes while watching Trump on TV, the Brazilian President turned to the camera to read sections of the country’s constitution condemning terrorism, and accused his predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of supporting Iran’s plans to enrich uranium.

[More at Bloomberg, image above is a screenshot Jair Bolsonaro's official Facebook livestream earlier today.]

Acredite se quiser – Bolsonaro fez uma live de Facebook assistindo o pronunciamento de Trump https://t.co/4kb2TO09ui

 DCM ONLINE (@DCM_online) January 8, 2020

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro took to Facebook to broadcast himself watching Donald Trump’s speech on Iran, taking the opportunity to stress that he supports peace efforts and rejects terrorism. by @neyhayashi https://t.co/9rVNFdyoFz

 Bruce Douglas (@bruceecurb) January 8, 2020

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro filmed himself on Facebook Live while watching Donald Trump’s speech on Iran https://t.co/no7JywF1Pl https://t.co/cSOwe4Z6E0

 Luis Velarde (@luivelarde) January 8, 2020

Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/W66J53SBBz0/brazil-on-facebook-bolsonaro.html

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/bXLzXzXksWQ/watch-chef-make-baby-sonic-cak.html

Sam Battle of Look Mum No Computer, the mad sonic scientist who brought us the Furby Organ, has done it again. This time, he turned a Sega Genesis/Mega Drive into an awesomely retro-sounding synthesizer.

The Sega Mega Drive included a Yamaha YM2612 six-channel FM synthesizer chip under the hood. Sam broke that out to create his synth which so epically invokes that iconic, often cringe-worthy, 80s synth sound.

On his second YouTube channel, Look Mum No Computer But More Serious-ish, he goes into more detail about the YM2612, the Sega Drive, and putting together the synth. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/crhuWL0q8X4/turning-a-sega-megadrive-into.html

Digital marketing in the coming decade will be a battle fought on multiple fronts. Companies are finding their customers on more web outlets than ever, and they're not getting any less fickle.

It can all be pretty confusing for anyone looking to make their brand breakthrough, but the 2020 Full Stack Digital Marketing Certification Bundle is one of the best resources for anyone looking to cut through the noise.

The package has 12 courses that serve as instructions for all the best tools in the marketer's belt. No "rah-rah" pep talks here, just raw info about how you can use today's biggest platforms to elevate your brand.

There are specific looks at what draws face time on YouTube, Google Ads and Facebook. You'll learn how to use Google Analytics to track and act upon shifts in incoming traffic. And of course, you'll get expert, up to date advice on how to use SEO effectively across the board.

The bundle is already over 90% off the cost of the individual courses. Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/GYzBDB9SdSA/become-an-in-demand-digital-ma.html

I'm no coin collector but I'm certainly hoping to get this great new quarter, which depicts the fruit bats of the National Park in American Samoa, as change sometime this year.

CoinNews.net:

Designer: Richard Masters Sculptor-Engraver: Phebe Hemphill

Mr. Masters’ design depicts a Samoan Fruit Bat mother hanging in a tree with her pup evoking the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring. The design is intended to promote awareness of the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting. The National Park of American Samoa is the only park in the United States that is home to the Samoan Fruit Bat. Inscriptions are "NATIONAL PARK," "AMERICAN SAMOA," "2020," and "E PLURIBUS UNUM."

This coin, part of the America the Beautiful collection, has a release date of February 3.

Thanks, Kasey!

image via CoinWeek Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/fsTtbciW6NI/cute-fruit-bats-featured-on-ne.html

Yes, it has come to this. Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg and acting U.S. president and warmongering dumbass Donald Trump are both buying duelling $10 million dollar campaign ads to run against each other during the Super Bowl.

Where's that giant flaming meteor, 2020. Bring it on.

“The biggest point is getting under Trump’s skin,” Michael Frazier, a spokesman for the Bloomberg campaign, told the New York Times.

Citing sources with the campaigns, CNN reports that both Trump and former New York Mayor Bloomberg's presidential campaigns plan to each spend $10 million on 60-second TV spots to run during the much-watched football game.

Trump's ad, according to a campaign aide, is expected to run early in the game. The campaign reserved the ad time in December and the spot has already been paid for, the aide added. Bloomberg, after Trump's plans to run an ad during the Super Bowl were reported on last year, decided that he would also air a spot during the February 2 game, a spokesperson for the former New York Mayor told CNN.

Neither campaign said exactly how much they paid for their ad, but Fox executives have said that they hope a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl would cost more than $5 million, meaning a 60-second spot could cost each campaign upwards of $10 million. The Bloomberg spokesperson said that the presidential campaign would pay "market rate" for the coveted ad time.

Trump, Bloomberg campaigns set to spend millions to air ads during Super Bowl [Dan Merica, Kaitlan Collins and Betsy Klein, CNN, 5:24 PM ET, Tue January 7, 2020]

IMAGES courtesy miasbliv.com Read the rest

http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/tfgDcXZ2DLo/super-bowl-bloomberg-and-trum.html