“Texas is investigating Facebook for possibly running afoul of state laws on the collection of biometric data, according to June documents uncovered by a tech watchdog group,” reports Ashley Gold at Axios.

And the attorney general of Texas may just be on to something.

Facebook users in Illinois recently secured a major settlement over the issue of biometric data collection.

Excerpt:

The Texas AG is investigating Facebook for possibly violating its Texas Deceptive Trade Practices — Consumer Protection Act by improperly collecting biometric identifiers, according to the documents, obtained by the Tech Transparency Project through a public records request and shared with Axios Monday.

The documents show the Texas AG issuing a civil investigative demand to Facebook, asking for many pages of information related to Patel v. Facebook, the case that led to the settlement in Illinois in February, when Facebook agreed to pay $550 million (recently bumped to $650 million).

Between the lines: The latest documents don't make clear exactly what the Texas AG's office is looking into, but the Illinois case centered on Facebook's use of facial recognition tech to identify people in photos uploaded to the platform and suggest tagging them.

That violated Illinois law on biometric privacy, argued the plaintiffs in the case. The settlement still has to be approved by the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California.

Where it stands: The documents Texas is seeking include discovery materials, responses to requests for interrogatories, the identity of experts retained by Facebook in the matter, unredacted transcripts of depositions, and a copy of all motions and pleadings.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/texas-ag-probing-facebook-over.html

YouTuber Anton Petrov summarizes the latest research that suggests a fungus found thriving in Chernobyl could be used to block radiation in spacesuits, extraterrestrial structures, and more, based on successful small-scale tests at the International Space Station.

The work at the ISS suggests that a 21 cm (~9-inch) layer of fungus could provide complete blockage of cosmic radiation. The good news is that small quantities can be transported, then grown on site. Also, if the fungus shield gets damaged, it can regenerate.

Scientists are looking into all kinds of biological substances that can block ionizing radiation, including one produced by humans: melanin.

Image: YouTube / Anton Petrov Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/chernobyl-fungus-could-block-c.html

Sinclair Broadcasting, the massively influential right-wing media conglomerate that cleverly buys up TV stations in local markets in order to push conservative propaganda, plans to push a national news segment featuring a video with Judy Mikovits, the woman behind the quickly-popularized but swiftly-debunked Plandemic YouTube conspiracy theory. Media Matters was first to report:

Baseless conspiracy theories about the novel coronavirus and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force, found a platform on the new episode of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s America This Week. The episode is available for streaming on Sinclair-owned or -operated television station websites and is set to air on dozens of Sinclair stations over the weekend.

Toward the end of his show, host Eric Bolling interviewed Judy Mikovits of the conspiracy theory video Plandemic and her attorney Larry Klayman about their plans to sue Fauci. He introduced the prerecorded interview by referring to her as “an expert in virology” who previously “worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci.”

[…]

Bolling immediately followed this interview with an interview of Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier to respond to these claims -- despite her own record of misleading audiences about the coronavirus. Saphier labeled those who believe Fauci created the coronavirus as “conspiracy theorists,” saying “it’s highly unlikely” and that she thought “Dr. Fauci in no way, shape, or form has been involved in the manufacturing of this virus.” But in the same breath, she also suggested it’s likely that the virus was “man-made within a laboratory.”

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/sinclair-broadcasting-aired-a.html

In an attack on the New York Times' 1619 project tracing slavery in America to its origins, Republican senator Tom Cotton described it as “the necessary evil upon which the union was built”.

“We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise we can’t understand our country. As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.” Cotton write.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, who was awarded this year’s Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her introductory essay to the 1619 Project, said ... “If chattel slavery – heritable, generational, permanent, race-based slavery where it was legal to rape, torture, and sell human beings for profit – were a ‘necessary evil’ as Tom Cotton says, it’s hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end.

Cotton concedes a claim, often denied by conservatives, that slavery was central to the founding of the American republic. That said, Cotton now insists he was merely attributing the remark to the Founding Founders.

The text of his editorial, however, plainly poses him in agreement: "As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil."

Cotton attempted a similar "clarification" after his "Send in the Troops" op-ed was interpreted as a call for a general crackdown on rowdy protestors.

Once again, he set out to sound like a no-nonsense strongman of the right, poured cement around his own feet, didn't like how fast it set, and ended up bleating about "fake news" on Twitter. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/gop-senator-tom-cotton-describ.html

Several US state departments of agriculture report that people are receiving unsolicited packets of seeds in the mail, apparently from China. Don't plant them, the officials warn. From USA Today:

The agriculture departments in Washington, Louisiana, Kansas and Virginia have recently issued statements warning residents that the seeds may be invasive or otherwise harmful to local plants or livestock. People in Utah, Arizona and Ohio have also reported receiving the mysterious packages, local news outlets reported.

Some of the packages were labeled as jewelry and may have Chinese writing on them, according to agriculture officials[...]

Police in Whitehouse, Ohio, said the seeds appear to be connected to an online scam and are not "directly dangerous."

“A brushing scam is an exploit by a vendor used to bolster product ratings and increase visibility online by shipping an inexpensive product to an unwitting receiver and then submitting positive reviews on the receiver’s behalf under the guise of a verified owner," the department said in a statement.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/did-you-receive-a-random-packe.html

High-speed cinematographer Darren Dyk turns his lens on a solitary kernel of popcorn to impressive effect. Bonus pareidolic creature in profile opening its mouth at 1:32.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/watch-popcorn-popping-in-super.html

In 1991, scientists discovered a strange form of fungi growing at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The organisms seem to feed on radiation, converting gamma rays into energy for growth. Now, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Stanford University are exploring whether these "radiotrophic fungi" could protect astronauts living on the Moon or Mars. A big benefit is that the fungus self-replicate so the material could be grown upon arrival rather than having to be carried into space from Earth. Experiments conducted on the International Space Station suggest that growing a layer of fungus on top of Mars rock could result in a sufficient shield for people stationed on the Red Planet. From their technical paper in bioRxiv:

In search of innovative radiation-shields, biotechnology holds unique advantages such as suitability for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU), self-regeneration, and adaptability. Certain fungi thrive in high-radiation environments on Earth, such as the contamination radius of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Analogous to photosynthesis, these organisms appear to perform radiosynthesis, using pigments known as melanin to convert gamma-radiation into chemical energy. It is hypothesized that these organisms can be employed as a radiation shield to protect other lifeforms.[...]

Estimations based on linear attenuation coefficients indicated that a ~ 21 cm thick layer of this fungus could largely negate the annual dose-equivalent of the radiation environment on the surface of Mars, whereas only ~ 9 cm would be required with an equimolar mixture of melanin and Martian regolith. Compatible with ISRU (in-situ resource utilization), such composites are promising as a means to increase radiation shielding while reducing overall up-mass, as is compulsory for future Mars-missions.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/fungi-from-chernobyl-could-pro.html

The price of gold is at an all-time high, fueled by the unchecked spread of Covid-19 in the U.S. and deepening tensions at home and abroad.

In the morning of Asian trading hours on Monday, spot gold traded at about $1,931.11 per ounce after earlier trading as high as $1,943.9275 per ounce. Those levels eclipsed the previous record high price set in September 2011.

In a note circulated before the new highs, Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Vivek Dhar said the fall in U.S. 10-year real yields has been the “most important driver.”

Meanwhile, Johan Jooste of The Global CIO Office told CNBC’s “Street Signs” on Monday that there’s a “horrible feeling of chasing it a bit after the fact” if investors enter the gold market now.

Gold doesn't pay dividends or bear interest, but interest rates are near zero and the economy is in ruins, so... Go Go Gadget Gold. Prices are up 28%. CNN posted this chart, drawn by Julia Horowitz:

Also alarming is President Trump's coy disinclination to leave office as November's general election approaches. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/gold-hits-record-high-as-tensi.html

According to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, there's a one in 2 million chance of catching a blue lobster. The very rare crustaceans have a genetic defect that causes the unusual tint. In Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, Red Lobster employees noticed a blue lobster in their daily delivery and contacted the Akron Zoo. They named it Clawde after the restaurant mascot. From the Akron Beacon Journal:

Zoo spokeswoman Elena Bell said a conservation partnership called Seafood Watch run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California helped to coordinate the donation of the rare American lobster.

The lobster has been put into isolation in a so-called Man Cave tank at the zoo before it can join its new friends who call the Komodo Kingdom building home.

(Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/red-lobster-saves-blue-lobster.html

Utopia was a short-lived BBC black comedy/thriller series about a few fans of a cult graphic novel, whose search for original manuscript pages brings them into the orbit of a massive conspiracy that involves unleashing a man-made "Russian Flu" pandemic to cull the population and carefully cultivate human eugenics. With just 12 episodes spread across two seasons, it's succinct and consistently exciting, with stunningly gorgeous cinematography.

So naturally, Amazon Prime is making an Americanized adaptation of it, during a pandemic when conspiracism has reached fever heights. Gone Girl writer Gillian Flynn is a co-writer and executive producer on the new series, which, judging by this new comic-con trailer, looks fine. I'll watch it. And then I'll probably go back and re-binge the original again.

There's no release date yet, but here's the official synopsis:

‘Utopia’ centers on a group of comic fans who meet online and bond over their obsession of a seemingly fictional comic called ‘Utopia.’ Together, Ian (Dan Byrd), Becky (Ashleigh LaThrop), Samantha (Jessica Rothe), Wilson Wilson (Desmin Borges), and Grant (Javon “Wanna” Walton) unearth hidden meanings cloaked within the pages of ‘Utopia,’ predicting threats to humanity. They realize these are not just the makings of a conspiracy; they are very real dangers coming alive right now in their world.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/watch-the-first-trailer-for-am.html

Comic legend George Carlin died in 2008 but his 2005 stand-up bit/rant "The American Dream" has been made even more poignant than ever in "America Wake Up." Portland-based Pattern Integrity Films are behind the powerful new short that uses modern footage to illustrate Carlin's timeless message. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/powerful-short-america-wake.html

You sort out your recycling. You don’t use plastic bottles anymore. And you’ve even gone paperless, right down to using the canvas shopping bag at the grocery store. But even if you’re trying to be ultra-vigilant to the environmental impact you make on our planet, there are bound to be some blind spots in that philosophy that you may not have considered.

Blind spots like...what about all those cotton swabs you use?

Sure, they may look innocuous enough, but the reality is that manufacturers pump out more than 1.5 billion brand new swabs each and every day. Then after one ear cleaning or makeup application, you toss it right into the trash, where that used cotton swab joins its 1.5 billion daily brothers to end up part of another huge lump of waste clogging your area landfill.

You can put your foot down on even more waste in our world by ending your swab addiction with the LastSwab Reusable Swab.

Made from stiff, compact nylon with medical silicone grade tips, the LastSwab is engineered to be used and reused over 1,000 times before it needs to be replaced. The LastSwab’s high quality, non-toxic, soft-feel tip is designed to feel much like cotton, the thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) offering comfortable usage without any irritation, no matter what body part is being cleaned or highlighted.

After each usage, just run it through a quick hand washing with some soap and water and it's back to being as good as new. Heck, even the swab’s carrying case is biodegradable...although Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/the-lastswab-will-keep-you-fro.html

Tracy Kiss calls herself a "natural vegan bodybuilder." Which is confusing, because semen is definitely derived from animals. But, Kiss insists, it's also an essential multivitamin that helps keep her in shape — and, perhaps most crucially, boosts her immune system to prevent infection by the novel coronavirus. From The Sun:

The personal trainer has also been putting the product on her skin, which she dubs "nature's multivitamin", as part of healthcare routine for more than three years.

She reckons it's packed with vitamin C, calcium and magnesium - so is urging people to use semen to keep healthy during the pandemic.

Mum-of-two Tracey, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, said: "It isn't for everyone but it is packed full of vitamins and I haven't had a cold or flu ever since drinking it in 2017 - I also put it on my face to clear up my skin.

"The purity of it is just wonderful."

To be clear, there is no scientific evidence to support Kiss's theory. I'm fairly certain there's no evidence to support the idea that semen is vegan friendly, either, but what do I know. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/meet-the-vegan-bodybuilder-who.html

Craft Workbench posted a video of a tiny finger-mounted crossbow, proving that it can assassinate a pickle even after being submerged in water. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/finger-crossbow.html

Johnny Harris took on the brain-melting task of truly understanding the argument that the earth is flat, including the modern conspiracy theory that the military guards ice walls circling earth's perimeter. Hoo boy.

The truly terrifying stat in the video is that a recent poll found only two in three people age 18-24 have always believed the world is round:

Image: YouTube / Johnny Harris Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/strap-in-for-a-detailed-explai.html

In this footage from 1985 Richard Harrison classic Blood Debts, our hero defeats his adversary and we learn that "Mark Collins, age 45, gave himself up to the authorities after the incident. he is currently serving a life sentence".

Here's more from Blood Debts, a very good movie:

You can buy the VHS on Amazon, and you should, because that is the only format that does the material justice. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/the-best-last-scene-of-any-mov.html

In 2022, four bison will be released in Kent, marking the first time wild bison have roamed in the United Kingdom in six millennia. Similar programs in other European countries have been very successful.

Bison are a keystone species which beneficially alters a biome. Via The Guardian:

Bison kill selected trees by eating their bark or rubbing against them to remove their thick winter fur. This creates a feast of dead wood for insects, which provide food for birds. Tree felling also creates sunny clearings where native plants can thrive. The trust expects nightingales and turtle doves to be among the beneficiaries of the bison’s “ecosystem engineering”.

Experts expect the herd to grow naturally with one or two calves each season.

Image: Wikimedia Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/the-uk-will-soon-have-wild-bis.html

Earlier this year, Gundam Factory Yokohama announced plans to debut a 60-foot-tall Gundam robot on October 1, 2020. While construction on this epic mech was initially delayed by COVID-19, it seems that things are back on schedule — so much so, that they let the Gundam out for a test walk.

Popular Mechanics has some more details:

Once finished, the robot will feature an incredible 24 degrees of freedom, meaning this thing will be able to walk. When everything is said and done, the whole thing will weigh in at about 25 tons, and that's actually pretty lightweight, considering how heavy it could have been.

Those weight efficiencies are thanks to careful engineering and design work, as outlined in a series of YouTube videos from Gundam Factory Yokohama. In one installment, we get a tour of where the workers designed, built, and assembled Gundam. From the metal fingertip to where the wrist will connect, the hand is about 6.5 feet.

Jun Narita, head of design, explains that special considerations about the types of material and motors had been taken into account because otherwise one hand could weigh as much as 1,300 pounds.

Giant robots and a pandemic. How much more cyberpunk can this reality get?

Watch Engineers Take Their 60-Foot-Tall Gundam for a Walk [Courtney Linder / Popular Mechanics] Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/japanese-engineers-built-a-60.html

Tony "Coyote" Perez is a helluva storyteller. Built to Burn: Tales of the Desert Carnies of Burning Man is his much-anticipated book about the "wild west" days of "that thing in the desert." It's available for pre-order (ebook now, paperback later). Notably, it's the first book that the Burning Man Project has ever published.

BUILT TO BURN tells the story of how Tony, a San Francisco blues musician, became Coyote, builder of Burning Man's legendary city in the desert, and how he came to lead a ragtag band of circus runaways, freaks and geeks that would become its Department of Public Works.

In 1996, Tony was making a decent living as a musician, but his creative juices had run dry: one night onstage, he realized he'd just played an entire sax solo while thinking about his laundry. So when a wild-at-heart friend invites him to something called "Burning Man," he grabs his backpack and hops in the car, unaware that the experience ahead will not only turn him inside out, but alter the course of his life.

An essential Burning Man origin story, BUILT TO BURN chronicles the wild uncertainty and creative chaos of the early days in the desert, when the event's future was under constant threat and the organizers were making everything up as they went along. It's a tale of struggle and survival, of friends made and friends lost, as Coyote and his misfit crew battle raging storms, crazed livestock, angry townsfolk and each other, locking horns with the real-life cowboys, Indians, outlaws and outcasts of Nevada's high desert frontier.

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/27/new-book-built-to-burn-tal.html

When you used to walk through any office you would likely spot a few bobbleheads. These wobbly figurines are great fun to have around, although most celebrate people we will never meet.

For something a little more personal, try Handmade Custom Bobbleheads. These mini caricatures are sculpted and painted by skilled artisans, based on any photo you provide. They make a great gift for family and friends, and a nice addition to your desk.

There is nothing wrong with owning figurines of your favorite athletes and movie characters. However, having an artist create a bobblehead from your likeness is infinitely cooler.

The process is pretty straightforward. You simply upload a photo of the person you want to see with a big, wobbly head, and choose a pose. This could be sitting behind a desk, standing proudly in superhero attire, or dressed ready for the catwalk.

The image is then passed to a skilled model maker, who crafts a 3D caricature. The likeness is usually spot-on, albeit with a clay complexion. You should receive your bobblehead around 4 to 6 weeks after placing an order.

The Custom Bobbleheads make really nice gifts and are an amusing way to mark your territory (think Dwight from The Office). Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/26/these-handmade-custom-bobblehe-2.html