Due to the ongoing pandemic, many jurisdictions—except those plunging ahead with superspreader events—are opting to hold a remote bar examination. Passing the bar exam is currently required for a law school graduate to practice law in most cases. But it is extremely unlikely that jurisdictions have the ability to build out the infrastructure to securely administer a remote bar exam, especially on only a few months’ notice.

Just last week, the American Board of Surgery had to cancel the remote administration of a qualifying exam part of the way through after issues in presenting the questions. There have since been so many reports that examinees' credit card information and personal data were compromised during the exam that the ABS is launching an investigation into the breach. Because it is standard for remote proctoring software to require a high level of access to the examinee’s computer, potential lawyers will be forced to make themselves and their data extremely vulnerable in order to take the exam.

Beyond just the possibility of hacking, some remote exams are proctored using facial recognition software, raising serious concerns about the privacy of examinees biometric information, algorithmic bias, and misidentification. And when human proctors have been used, there have been isolated reports of stalking and harassment of examinees. For a huge cohort of would-be attorneys, including the entire class of 2020, exposure to these dangers is not optional if they wish to practice law.

Remotely proctored bar exams are not the solution to the current crisis. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/remote-bar-exams-for-aspiring.html

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/watch-the-music-video-thats.html

The street art collective VoteBitch (the political arm of ArtBitch) is back. You might remember the pro-voting signs they droplifted in 2018. This time they've covered up crosswalk buttons with these clever anti-Trump/pro-voting messages:

View this post on Instagram

IN CASE OF MALFUNCTION …USE BALLOT. Yet more urban beautification via slap tag. . . . . #vote #itactuallymatters #votebitch #election2020 #blacklivesmatter #policebrutality #democrats #greenparty #votegreen #wewish #streetart #slaptag #adbusters #urbanstreetart #graphicdesign #agitprop #adbusters #voteblue #votebluenomatterwho #bluewave #Bluewave2020 #votebluenomatterwho #dnc #swingleft #civicengagement #localelections #letsdothis #fucktrump #fucktrumpandfuckyouforvotingforhim

A post shared by VoteBitch (@votebitch2020) on Jun 27, 2020 at 12:58pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

IN CASE OF MALFUNCTION …USE BALLOT. More urban beautification via slap tag. . . . . #vote #itactuallymatters #votebitch #election2020 #blacklivesmatter #policebrutality #democrats #greenparty #wewish #streetart #slaptag #adbusters #urbanstreetart #graphicdesign #agitprop #voteblue #votebluenomatterwho #bluewave #dnc #swingleft #civicengagement #localelections #silenceisviolence #rockthevote #letsdothis #fucktrump #fucktrumpandfuckyouforvotingforhim

A post shared by VoteBitch (@votebitch2020) on Jun 17, 2020 at 11:17am PDT

View this post on Instagram

IN CASE OF MALFUNCTION, USE BALLOT. Urban beautification via slap tag. . . . . #vote #itactuallymatters #votebitch #voteblue #votebluenomatterwho #election2020 #blacklivesmatter #policebrutality #democrats #greenparty #wewish #streetart #slaptag #adbusters #urbanstreetart #graphicdesign #agitprop #fucktrump #fucktrumpandfuckyouforvotingforhim

A post shared by VoteBitch (@votebitch2020) on Jun 5, 2020 at 12:49pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

IN CASE OF MALFUNCTION, USE BALLOT. Urban beautification via slap tag. . . . . #vote #itactuallymatters #votebitch #voteblue #votebluenomatterwho #election2020 #pandemic #covid_19 #democrats #wewish #streetart #slaptag #adbusters #urbanstreetart #graphicdesign #agitprop

A post shared by VoteBitch (@votebitch2020) on May 27, 2020 at 12:20pm PDT

image via VoteBitch/Instagram Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/street-artists-install-anti-tr.html

On July 7, 2020, a group of 150 elite writers and academics, ranging from David Brooks to J.K. Rowling, signed their names to a letter in Harper's Magazine crying the alleged censorship of so-called "cancel culture" — which is to say, angry voices on the Internet who disagree so vehemently with views they consider abhorrent that they use their right to free expression to boycott those views. "The Letter," as it's come to be known, was spearheaded by Thomas Chatterton Williams, and gestures broadly towards a few high-profile instances of "cancelling" without actually committing to any details or specific arguments beyond vague platitudes about "free speech"; supposedly, most of the signatories did not even read the final content of the actual letter before agreeing to add their name in support of these generic notions.

About a week later, even more writers and media professionals — most of whom were far less renowned than Chomsky or Brooks or Rowling, including myself — presented "A More Specific Letter on Justice and Open Debate," that addressed the specific instances alluded to in the original The Letter, while also pointing out the plainly transparent irony that, if you're a marquee name publishing a letter about a censorship in Harper's fucking Magazine, you are, by definition, not actually being censored or cancelled. If you're a famous intellectual or writer, and people get pissed at you for, say, repeatedly spewing transphobic bullshit, and they stop buying your books because we live in a capitalist society and they do not want to financially support rhetoric that they consider to be hateful or harmful, then that's not censorship. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/glenn-greenwald-was-cancelled.html

If you can say anything for the current state of our world, it certainly isn’t boring. However, the constant churn of high-stakes activity happening around us every day is enough to make even a Buddhist monk feel a twinge of anxiety now and again.

We all need a way to release those tensions, depressurize from the mad, mad world, and sink into something relaxing and soothing. For many, that’s a hobby like painting — and for those who have always wanted the opportunity to engage their artistic side with a brush and canvass, The Ultimate Creative Arts Bundle: Learn to Paint and Draw collection can help make that happen.

This package includes six courses packed with basics, techniques, and more to hone your artistic skills, create portraits and spend 18 hours really delving into how to draw and paint like a true creator.

Since it’s always been to start at the beginning, the dual courses How to Paint from Beginner to Master and How to Draw from Beginner to Master get right down to the fundamentals of both disciplines. In Draw, students who can’t even draw a stick figure will learn some time-honored drawing tactics turning the process into a step-by-step approach. By the time they’re finished, learners have a system for drawing difficult things like hands, eyes or portraits, how to apply shading, when to use various pencil lead weights and more. 

Meanwhile in Paint, lessons outline a similar step by step method for learning the fine art of oil painting. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/if-you-ever-wanted-to-take-up.html

Asked by black radio host Mo'Kelly why Trump commuted his sentence, Roger Stone muttered "I can't beleive I'm arguing with this negro."

NBC News:

"There are thousands of people treated unfairly daily," O'Kelly said. "Hell, your number just happened to come up in the lottery. I'm guessing it was more than just luck, Roger, right?"

Stone was silent, then it sounded like he was either away from the phone or covering it up when he said, "I don't really feel like arguing with this negro."

"I'm sorry, what was that?" O'Kelly responded. "Roger? I'm sorry, what did you say?"

Stone denied calling him that, saying on air, "I did not. You're out of your mind. You're out of your mind."

The statement is at about 12m 30s in on the tape. It's very quiet on a low-quality audio stream and Stone's trying to claim he said something else, so here's the remark with the volume increased (ie. normalized to -0.1db in Adobe Audition):

  An emerging excusensus on the right seems to be that calling a black man "this negro" in 2020 isn't racist because that's what they wanted to be called during the Hoover administration. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/roger-stone-utters-racial-slur.html

The FCC voted on Thursday to make 988 a suicide hotline number in 2022. Critics pointed out that the ruling did not address texting, which is the preferred mode of communication for many populations with high suicide rates. FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel stated:

I wholeheartedly approve this effort. But in light of the skyrocketing rates of suicide among our nation’s young people, I think this agency should have been more ambitious. Right now, the FCC lacks a plan to incorporate the ability to text into the number we establish today. But as we confront the rise in suicide by teenagers across the country, we should acknowledge that texting is their primary form of communication. Voice service has its benefits, but it is not native for most young people. So I regret today’s decision is anchored in older technologies and takes a pass on developing texting capabilities with this three-digit hotline. We should have done so here. I sincerely hope we can do so in the future.

In the meantime, if you are in crisis, call 800-273-8255 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You can also text via crisistextline.org or by texting START to 741741 from anywhere in the United States.

Image: Negative Space via Pexels, via The Hill Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/the-fcc-just-designated-988-as.html

CircleToonsHD hits the nail on the head with their depiction of when you use Twitter in 2020. This depiction has been pretty accurate since the start of the Trump Administration, as the platform currently only rewards sociopaths, journalists, and especially sociopath journalists.

There's also this instant classic on the gamification of boring jobs:

Image: CircleToonsHD Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/circletoonshd-accurately-descr.html

Blue from Overly Sarcastic Productions dives into how the Black Death spread from the Mongol Empire throughout Europe, giving us newly relevant terms like "quarantine" and "yeet." OK, maybe not the latter, but its use in this video to describe pestilence-filled corpses catapulted into Caffa is in fact, perfect.

Via Blue:

Escape the worries of our modern world by visiting the high middle ages and learning about something esoteric and irrelevant: Plague! In this video, I attempt to actually teach you something about how the medieval world worked and how it responded to this existential threat, rather than dredging up 3rd grade plague facts for easy views. Oops, did I say that out loud?

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/19/the-14th-century-black-plague.html

Home-delivered fresh meal prep kits have been crazy successful the past few years, a surge kicked into overdrive by our recent stay-at-home habits. While services that conveniently hand you everything you need to make a delicious dish are handier than ever, it’s no surprise some more niche-focused offshoots have also sprung up to keep your porch covered in tasty treats.

The cutely-named Whisk Takers is one such new player in this field, serving up a subscription-based menu of sweet baking projects that can turn you or anyone else in your household into a dessert chef with ease.

You already know the process. Just sign up and very soon, a tidy package arrives at your door, filled with pre-measured ingredients and a step-by-step recipe card to craft your perfect baking masterpieces.

Their simple, no-fuss methods can have anyone baking from scratch with ease. And no one ever has to run to the store for something they forgot, make a mess measuring, or sort through tiny leftover bags of ingredients that sit in the pantry for months afterward.

With the 2-box kit ($48, 22 percent off), bakers of any ability level can put together two of Whisk Takers’ most popular creations. If you’re in the mood for cake, the Chocolate Hazelnut Cupcakes might feed that desire. These cupcakes are not only bursting with deep chocolate and addictive hazelnuts, but they also unleash that incredible smell of fresh-baked treats throughout your home...which is almost reason enough to dive in.

Or if you enjoy gooey sweet treats, you can also wipe up a batch of S'mores Brownies, a mind-melting marshmallow-y masterstroke teaming up a fudge brownie base with a marshmallow topping and a sprinkling of cute Teddy Grahams to complete the vision. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/whisk-takers-delivers-everythi.html

Meditation chamber?? That’s a classic Sith hot tub.

Funko Pop! Deluxe: Star Wars - Darth Vader in Meditation Chamber via Amazon Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/the-darth-vader-in-his-sith.html

Look, this isn’t a pleasant topic...but let’s talk about sitting on the porcelain throne for just a moment, shall we?

For some people, that time perched on the toilet can be an oasis in the busiest of days. For others, it’s an easy way to go run and hide. Whether at work or at home, it’s not unheard of for someone to post up in a stall and stay there for 15, 20, even 30 minutes or more. Not much actual bathroom business is usually getting done there, but others — from family members to bosses to others who need the facilities — probably wish those folks would hurry the hell up.

The Toilet Timer is a fun way to remind everyone that time waits for none of us, even when we’re on the pot.

The Toilet Timer is a unique sand timer that runs for five minutes. When all the sand has run through the digestive tract of the poised man sitting on the timer’s face, that’s your signal that your time indisposed needs to end.

And in case you think this is just a heartless engineering project created by antsy bosses, impatient spouses, or unsympathetic kids, there’s actually some gastroenterological science to back up this five-minute rule as well. In fact, doctors will tell patients they shouldn’t be spending more than five minutes in the bathroom to avoid fissures and hemorrhoidal bleeding.

That’s a horrifying thought, so instead, stay focused on the benefits of the Toilet Timer. Putting this Kickstarter-funded device in your bathroom is an oh-so-subtle reminder to that long pooper in your family that you’re on to their trick. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/know-anyone-who-spends-way-too.html

The DEVO Energy Dome PPE Kit (Personal Protection Equipment) is now available for pre-order! The face masks look cool, too:

With COVID-19 stalking us its easy to forget that this is 2020 and the 40th anniversary of Devo’s Freedom of Choice. What more cogent way to use that freedom of choice than to choose which of these two classic Devo graphics you want printed on your 3-ply, cotton, washable Devo Coronavirus mask? Wait! Unlike most choices we are given you can choose to have both mask designs! You win either way as we try to stay safe and avoid mean COVID-19’s invisible spray!

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/devo-energy-dome-with-face-shi.html

Is the iPhone 12 coming? Yes. When? That’s still up for debate.

We’re all in a state of flux these days, including the world’s most iconoclastic tech company. But even though Apple’s latest and greatest phone may or may not drop this fall, one thing is certain — a sale on Apple tech and accessories is always noteworthy.

Right now, check out this collection of 24 great deals on Apple iPads, iMacs, Airpods, Apple Watches, and more, all with savings of up to $1,000. 

With four(!) different versions of Apple’s iconic tablet floating around, it can be hard to know exactly what you’re getting...beyond the sleek design, intuitive layout, and notoriously buttoned-up environment Apple is known for, that is.

But with Apple’s flagship iPad model, you get the baseline device that launched the line and still, 10 years later, is a rock-solid buy, especially at its entry-level price. 

With a nearly 10-inch Retina display, Wi-Fi connectivity, and a dual-core processor, these iPads might have a few miles on the odometer, but they’ve still got plenty of life left. Certified Refurbished by Apple to look and work as good as new, all three models are great for browsing and streaming, communicating with friends, and even doing most work tasks with ease. With built-in speakers, front and rear cameras, you get the quality tablet features you expect for only a fraction of what you'd if you bought a brand new iPad. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/here-are-24-deals-on-apple-dev.html

Last week, top Twitter accounts blurted out bitcoin scams, hauling in more than $120k for whoever compromised the bluechecks before the company could shut down the caper. How did they get access to the well locked-down accounts of Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Elon Musk and many more? According to The New York Times, someone left administrative logins pinned up in Twitter's slack channel.

Mr. O'Connor said other hackers had informed him that Kirk got access to the Twitter credentials when he found a way into Twitter's internal Slack messaging channel and saw them posted there, along with a service that gave him access to the company's servers. People investigating the case said that was consistent with what they had learned so far. A Twitter spokesman declined to comment, citing the active investigation.

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/how-the-twitter-hacker-got-in.html

Minecraft is premiering a new series called How We Make Minecraft this month. It promises to give fans details about how programmers make decisions about characters and gameplay, all presented in an irreverent and fun style.

Via their channel:

From the creators of ‘Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Minecraft’ and ‘Other Far Less Successful Projects We’d Rather Not Talk About Here’ comes a new series that’s borderline educational! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to never miss an episode! The series will premiere right here on July 31st. (Shameless cross-promotion: while you're waiting, you can always re-watch ‘Ten Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Minecraft’ here

Here's an embed as well:

Image: YouTube / Minecraft Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/minecraft-is-launching-a-behin.html

If you were sentient in 1980, this summary of that watershed year will bring back a flood of memories. If you weren't, behold the weird world of 40 years ago.

While the aesthetic is dead on, it's not so much weird history as it is regular history, which happens to be weird. Via Weird History:

1980. The start of the decade. It was a totally rad decade that was filled with many changes to our culture. From the rise of Ronald Reagan to the tragic ending of John Lennon, the year 1980 would see many new, cool, and totally weird changes. Weird History is taking a look back at the year 1980. Part 1 of 10 of the 1980s Timeline.

Image: YouTube / Weird History Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/weird-history-looks-back-at-th.html

Civil rights hero and Democratic Party representative John Lewis is dead at 80. Lewis was a key organiser of the 1963 March on Washington, badly beaten by Alabama State Troopers during a 1965 protest march. He represented his Atlanta district in the House of Representatives since 1987.

Arrested, jailed and beaten for challenging Jim Crow laws, Lewis would become a national figure by his early 20s. He later became the youngest of the Big Six civil rights leaders and, at 23, helped organize the March on Washington. There, he provided a keynote speech at the landmark event for civil rights.

"As it stands now, the voting section of this bill will not help the thousands of black people who want to vote," Lewis said. "It will not help the citizens of Mississippi, of Alabama and Georgia who are qualified to vote but lack a sixth-grade education. One man, one vote is the African cry. It is ours, too. It must be ours."

Here is president Barack Obama on his hero:

"I told him that all those young people — of every race, from every background and gender and sexual orientation — they were his children," Obama said. "They had learned from his example, even if they didn’t know it. They had understood through him what American citizenship requires, even if they had heard of his courage only through history books."

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/rep-john-lewis-1940-2020.html

Grad student Andrew Yockey of the University of Cincinnati  found that LSD use is way up in the US since Trump got elected. He adds, “Now that COVID’s hit, I’d guess that use has probably tripled.” Via Scientific American:

To arrive at their findings, Yockey and his colleagues turned to data collected from more than 168,000 American adults by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual, nationally representative questionnaire. They analyzed trends since 2015, partly because of the timing of the 2016 presidential election.

The researchers found that past-year LSD use increased by 56 percent over three years. The rise was especially pronounced in certain user groups, including people with college degrees (who saw a 70 percent increase) and people aged 26 to 34 (59 percent), 35 to 49 (223 percent) and 50 or older (45 percent). Younger people aged 18 to 25, on the other hand, decreased their use by 24 percent.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/18/american-lsd-use-up-56-since.html

Every once in awhile, we see a new product come along that’s so versatile and elegantly simple that it’s strange no one’s ever gone there before.

Portable lights themselves aren’t new, but there’s something about the MOGICS Coconut Light that’s so seamlessly well-designed and adaptable that it feels startlingly original.

The Coconut is basically just an orb of light. Yet the more than $105,000 this portable, foldable light source generated during its enthusiastic run on Kickstarter proves that its appeal goes far beyond its humble origins.

Made from durable, non-toxic, kid-safe silicon material, the Coconut Light is a minimalist perfect sphere of light that can adapt to almost any situation. The Coconut self-inflates and sports four different lighting modes, so whether it’s serving as a desk light, a table centerpiece, a camping accessory, or poolside ambiance, it effortlessly conforms to your environment.

The silicon sturdiness and clever engineering mean you don’t have to handle the Coconut Light with kid gloves. In fact, with its inflatable, balanced, durable construction, it’s practically like having a glowing rubber ball shining in the darkness.

The three-point design subtly creates a balance, so if the Coconut Light is set on a table, it doesn’t roll away. At the base, the invisible switch can toggle through normal, flash, breathing, and warning light modes.

In case you’re skeptical about carrying a rubber ball around with you, don’t worry -- the Coconut Light folds down to about a sixth of its original size. Then once you pop it out of its carrying case, the Coconut’s unique valve design expands it to its regular dimensions. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/17/this-multicolor-light-goes-any.html