Los Angeles taxpayers are on the hook for about $55 million stemming from "dozens of lawsuits and claims involving Los Angeles County deputies associated with tattooed groups accused of glorifying an aggressive style of policing," reports The Los Angeles Times. These secret cop societies have names like the Vikings, Regulators, 3000 Boys, and the Banditos, and their street gang-like criminal behavior extends back to 1990. Elected sheriffs and an FBI probe have been unable to stop the violent groups from operating.

From The Los Angeles Times:

"This has been a cancer of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department for decades," said Ron Kaye, an attorney who represented Carrillo. "The only reason that this type of illegal activity and lawlessness under the color of law can survive is if the department and its administration looks the other way."

Another lawsuit involving a bicyclist shot and killed by deputies in South L.A. was settled for $1.5 million in 2018 in part because one deputy had probably committed perjury when he denied that he was a member of the Regulators operating out of the Century station, officials said.

Several of the payouts involve the 3000 Boys and the 2000 Boys at Men's Central Jail. A top jail official had described exclusive gangs of deputies who would “earn their ink” by breaking inmates’ bones.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/05/la-taxpayers-paid-out-55-mill.html

Three men were rescued from a tiny South Pacific island after they wrote a giant “SOS” sign in the sand, later spotted from search aircraft above, authorities say.

From the Associated Press:

The men had been missing in the Micronesia archipelago for nearly three days when their distress signal was spotted Sunday on uninhabited Pikelot Island by searchers on Australian and U.S. aircraft, the Australian defense department said Monday.

The men had apparently set out from Pulawat atoll in a 7-meter (23-foot) boat on July 30 and had intended to travel about 43 kilometers (27 miles) to Pulap atoll when they sailed off course and ran out of fuel, the department said.

IMAGE: In this photo provided by the Australian Defense Force, an Australian Army helicopter lands on Pikelot Island in the Federated States of Micronesia, where three men were found, Sunday, August 2, 2020, safe and healthy after missing for three days. The men were missing in the Micronesia archipelago east of the Philippines for nearly three days when their "SOS" sign was spotted by searchers on Australian and U.S. aircraft, the Australian defense department said. (Australian Defense Force) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/sos-written-in-sand-helps.html

With more and more companies moving all their operations into the cloud, the need has never been greater for those with the skills to map exactly how an organization reconstitutes itself in that new environment.

Network architects responsible for determining all the communication, storage, and infrastructure needs of an expansive organization are among the most sought-after pros in computer science today, bringing home salaries of over $135,000 a year in many cases.

The journey to a role like that can begin with training like the knowledge found in The Complete Computer Networking eBook and Video Course Bundle. 

The collection is your very own computer networking reference library, including five ebooks and five videos covering over 14 hours of content on a truckload of critical topics, including DevOps, programming, AWS, CCNA, and more.

For every important decision about how to administer a network, there are a dozen different paths to a solution — and this training takes that into account, examining several of the most popular tools for managing and growing a busy network.

The ebooks start you off with a smattering of training from across the discipline. Want to know how to run a Linux network? The Hands-On Linux for Architects ebook has everything you need. Maybe you’re doing all of your coding in the C programming language — in which case Hands-On Network Programming with C explains utilizing network sockets, implementing internet protocols, designing IoT devices, and more with C. Or the AWS Certified Advanced Networking: Specialty Exam Guide can help you develop technical skills and expertise to automate AWS networking tasks and advanced skill sets to build effective AWS networking solutions of your own. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/this-training-package-can-help.html

COVID-19 sure has created some weird shortages. Clorox disinfectant wipes are one such product.

American grocery shelves won’t be fully restocked with Clorox’s disinfecting wipes until next year, CEO Benno Dorer told Reuters, “as the world’s biggest cleaning products maker struggles with overwhelming pandemic-led demand for its top product.”

Excerpt:

Since the start of global lockdowns, makers of hygiene goods have seen a sustained boom in sales. While California-based Clorox typically holds aside excess supply for flu seasons, it says it has been unable to keep up with a six-fold increase in demand for many of its disinfectants.

The company is currently understocked across much of its portfolio, which includes Glad trash bags and Burt’s Bees lip balm. Supply for most products, like liquid bleach, will improve dramatically over the next four to six months - but not wipes, Dorer said on Monday.

Clorox products are used in Uber vehicles and United Airlines planes, and are sold by major retailers like Walmart, Amazon and Kroger.

“Disinfecting wipes, which are the hottest commodity in the business right now, will probably take longer because it’s a very complex supply chain to make them,” Dorer said.

More at Reuters. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/clorox-wont-have-enough-disi.html

Graham Clark, the 17-year-old Florida boy accused of pulling off the big Twitter hack, pled not guilty to charges on Tuesday. During the security breach, top accounts including Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk were taken over to push a bitcoin scam.

Young Mr. Clark told Circuit Court Judge Christopher Nash in Tampa today he was not guilty of the 30 felony counts of fraud prosecutors have brought against him, according to court records. From Reuters:

Clark is scheduled to appear in court again on Wednesday for a hearing on a request to change his $750,000 bond and conditions of release. Clark’s attorney, David Weisbrod, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

A 19-year-old British man and a 22-year-old man in Orlando, Florida, have also been charged under U.S. federal law with aiding the attack, the Justice Department said.

Clark netted at least $100,000 from the scheme by using the celebrity accounts to solicit investments from unsuspecting Twitter users, state officials said.

Mason Sheppard, a 19-year-old from Bognor Regis, Britain, who used the alias Chaewon, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering while Orlando-based Nima Fazeli, 22, nicknamed Rolex, was accused of aiding and abetting the crimes, according to a Justice Department statement.

Read more at Reuters.

How the Twitter hacker got in

Major Twitter hack pushes bitcoin scam on Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Apple, Uber, Biden accounts, collects $$$$

Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/florida-teen-pleads-not-guilty.html

This song and video crossed my transom last week and it's been haunting me ever since. Lee Hazelwood allegedly wrote this song (and others) at the request of Frank Sinatra in an effort to help boost daughter Nancy's career and send it in new directions.

The video and duet with Hazelwood and Sinatra premiered on her 1967 TV special "Movin' with Nancy." That night, Lee and Nancy also performed "Jackson" and Sinatra performed "Sugar Town," "This Town," and several other Hazelwood compositions. Lee Hazelwood would end up writing most of Nancy Sinatra's hits.

"Some Velvet Morning" is a strange mash-up of country and pop psychedelia with apparent references to sex, drugs, and Greek mythology. Hazelwood said that he was fascinated by mythology at the time and was particularly interested in the character of Phaedra, a tragic figure in the Greek mythos. Hazelwood said he felt sorry for her and decided to invoke her spirit in a song.

Bonus Track: There are a zillion covers of "Some Velvet Morning." Here is Rowland S. Howard and Lydia Lunch's take:

Image: YouTube Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/the-wonderfully-weird-cowboy-p.html

Trombonist Martyn Stroud offers this humble disclaimer on his rousing watering-can rendition of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s "Flight of the Bumblebee," "This is not an art form. It’s not even going to be accurate, but it is good fun." That striped yellow-and-black shirt he's wearing is a nice touch.

(Neatorama, ClassicFM)

screengrab via Martyn Stroud/Facebook Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/trombonist-plays-flight-of-t.html

Portland's Pioneer Square is now covered in giant vinyl polka dots, thanks to my pal Bill Will. The large-scale installation is titled "Polka Dot Courthouse Square" and encourages safe distancing while gathering in the square, aka "Portland's living room."

Polka Dot Courthouse Square is a series of colorful, 12-foot, vinyl “dots” adhered to the red brick surface of the Square. These dots, spaced 10-feet apart within a structured grid, not only “decorate” our beloved Portland Living Room carpet, but also “set the stage” for performances by a diverse range of Portland artists, musicians, writers, singers, dancers and market vendors – while also welcoming the un-choreographed, open space behaviors of Portland’s citizens and visitors. These performances will be captured through still photography and video then promoted collaboratively with installation partners. In a fascinating double entendre, this art installation not only establishes the safe distancing required for public gathering but also encourages activation by others. It creates a wonderful comment on the push me/pull you aspect of the mandated distancing.

View this post on Instagram

POLKA DOT COURTHOUSE SQUARE Photo by @pdxdrone25 Livestream (too bright mid day): www.kgw.com/live-cameras #polkadotcourthousesquare #pioneercourthousesquare #thesquarepdx #billwillstudio #socialdistancing #installationart

A post shared by Bill Will (@billxwill) on Jul 31, 2020 at 12:47pm PDT

You can see the colorful circles on the square on this live cam (not visible in the mid-day sun).

images via Bill Will Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/there-are-huge-polka-dots-all.html

Researchers at West Virginia University have recently discovered how, exactly, the fungus Massospora hijacks cicadas into acting as its zombified parasite drones:

Massospora manipulates male cicadas into flicking their wings like females – a mating invitation – which tempts unsuspecting male cicadas and infects them.

It’s a recent discovery into the bizarre world of cicadas plagued by a psychedelic fungus that contains chemicals including those found in hallucinogenic mushrooms. The research, “Behavioral betrayal: How select fungal parasites enlist living insects to do their bidding,” was published in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

[…]

These actions persist amid a disturbing display of B-horror movie proportions: Massospora spores gnaw away at a cicada’s genitals, butt and abdomen, replacing them with fungal spores. Then they “wear away like an eraser on a pencil,” Lovett said.

[…]

“Our previous literature always mentioned the strange behaviors associated with Massospora and some closely-allied fungi but what was missing was a synthesis of all this new information that had come to light,” Kasson said. “The most interesting finding is the things we still don't know. We realized that there were some possible scenarios for infection that we had not considered before.”

The researcher suspects that this fungus has also adapted to lie in wait for 17 years, so that it can emerge into the world alongside the 17-year cicada cycle.

In related news, the year is still 2020, and this reality keeps happening.

Return of the zombie cicadas: WVU team unearths manipulative qualities of fungal-infected flyers [WVU Today]

Image: WVU Photo/Angie Macias Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/scientists-have-discovered-how.html

Please like and share this piece of art that I made. pic.twitter.com/g2lFTC0UHv

 Nick Hutson (@NickHutsonMusic) August 4, 2020

Q: What is a "Mah N`a Mah N`a"?

A: The question is, "Who cares?"

(Thanks UPSO!) Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/trump-helps-sing-mah-na-mah.html

“Here it is, folks,” writes Yahoo News' Alexander Nazaryan. “yo-SEMITE.” Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/watch-president-trump-attempt.html

I'm SURE this law firm didn't mean to use award-winning actor Hal Holbrook's image to be the poster boy of an abusive Scoutmaster. Yes, this is a real ad for a real class-action campaign for Boy Scout survivors to get compensation for being abused. I got this image directly from a trusted blogger pal (who wishes to remain anonymous). I messaged him, "someone young maybe didn't know it was a famous actor???" and he joked back, "Maybe they googled 'pervy looking old guy.'" (Readers, do you know why this image is being used?!)

You can see the original photo of Mr. Holbrook, Emmy- and Tony-award winning actor, here on NPR.

screengrab via Facebook Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/hal-holbrooks-image-erroneou.html

If you do soldering work, I recommend getting a pair of these micro flush cutters. They'll cut copper wires flush with the blob of solder, making your work look tidy. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/hakko-micro-cutters-will-flush-2.html

@sciencing_bi was a well-read Science Twitter account, a queer Native American professor with a unique perspective on science and university life. They reportedly caught coronavirus and and died of Covid, drawing tributes from online admirers, some of them prominent academics. But it was only the final straw in a haybale of suspicion for people who knew BethAnn McLaughlin, a white woman that @sciencing_bi often spoke of. It turns out, with grim predictability, that it was her all along, catfishing the academic pond.

The anonymous account, @Sciencing_Bi, was an active participant in the corner of Science Twitter that frequently discusses issues of sexual misconduct in the sciences. It claimed on at least one occasion to have grown up in Alabama, to have “fled the south because of their oppression of queer folk,” and to have attended Catholic school. The account began to pointedly make reference to being Native American and, earlier this year, began to identify as Hopi. ... In April, @Sciencing_Bi began to undergo a drama that belonged solely to her, announcing the coronavirus diagnosis in a tweet. It was Ms. McLaughlin who announced that the anonymous professor had died.

Twitter banned both McLaughlin and her sockpuppet, but there's a lot more to unravel.

An interesting element of the sockpuppet was posing @sciencing_bi at Arizona State University. One of the largest universities in the U.S., ASU has a six-figure roster of students, academics and staff, a daunting prospect to any researcher trying to track the account author down. Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/popular-queer-native-american.html

I used to think the 1970s was a bad decade for pop culture. But the 70s gave us A Clockwork Orange, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Deliverance, Jaws, Taxi Driver, The Buzzcocks, Fishbone, The Ramones, Earth, Wind & Fire, Breakfast of Champions, and Surfacing.

It turns out the 1980s was the terrible decade for entertainment, as evidenced by this video "tribute to '80s Entertainment." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/this-tribute-to-80s-entertainm.html

It's easy to understand why singer/songwriter Linda Diaz's deeply soulful "Green Tea Ice Cream" won NPR's 2020 Tiny Desk Contest:

Diaz is a singer and songwriter from New York City, and her winning entry, "Green Tea Ice Cream," has a powerful message and euphoric sound. To me, Diaz's song is about slowing down and trying to find moments to enjoy life. Hearing her sing the line, "you should be living out your dreams / but you're tearing at the seams" seemed particularly poignant this year as we're all struggling to find balance in our lives.

Diaz's compelling entry and captivating stage presence left a mark on our other judges, too. "Linda stood out in a crop of thousands of talented musicians, but I knew early on that she was the one to beat," Tiny Desk producer and Contest judge Bobby Carter said. "Her tone, her message and the band's overall musical presentation were simply undeniable." Carter was so impressed with Diaz's entry early on that he interviewed her in the very first episode of Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf.

Judges Tarik Moody of 88Nine Radio Milwaukee and Tiny Desk alumna Gina Chavez agreed that we all needed Diaz's entry this year. "It was meditative and reminded me to take care of myself during this craziness that is 2020," Moody said. Chavez added, "If harmonies are medicine, then Linda Diaz is a salve for the soul."

Linda writes:

This song is about finding and honoring your passions/peace in a society that values you based on your productivity.

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/this-soulful-song-won-nprs-2.html

"Hammer Time" becomes "Sanitize"  when Dr. Quentin J. Lee an Alabama principal, "sings a rap song about Covid to MC Hammer's classic hit of 'Can't Touch This.'" Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/alabama-principal-does-a-great.html

Someone attached a "Trump 2020" sticker to a bear's tracking collar in North Carolina and an animal rights organization called Help Asheville Bears is offering $5,000 for information.

From CNN:

"Whoever put these political stickers on these bears is cruel and heartless," HAB wrote in a Facebook post. "HAB and our followers hope to stop and expose you. This is now the second bear this happened to, which can only mean either someone in the study is doing this or it is someone in the public. Either way, a full investigation needs to be done."

Image: CNN Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/animal-rights-group-offers-rew.html

James Lovelock, the NASA scientist who came up with the theory that the Earth is a self-regulating system (known as Gaia theory) recently celebrated his 101st birthday. In this BBC interview, Lovelock discusses the Coronavirus, and how the human race is an "opportunity for the virus. If you go on building at the population, it's almost inevitable that something is going to say, geez, there's a lot of stuff to eat there. Let's go get it."

He also talks about entering his second century of life: " I've never been so happy. I had always thought the moment you passed 100 life started going downhill and it was miseries and staggering all over the place. Well, I may stagger, but I couldn't care less,  it's really enjoyable." Read the rest

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/watch-interview-with-james-l.html

Aurora PD handcuff and held family at gunpoint. pic.twitter.com/GkTWKFZqkI

 Joshua Rodriguez (@Joshuajered) August 3, 2020

On Sunday, police in Aurora, Colorado spotted a car with a license plate number that matched a stolen motorcycle, so they sprang into action. Guns drawn, the white cops forced the occupants -- a young black mother and four girls (one just 6 years old) -- to lie on their stomachs in a parking lot. Two of the girls were handcuffed.  In a video shot by a bystander, the children, clearly in terror, can be heard crying and screaming.

Aurora’s police chief said the incident was a "misunderstanding."

From The Washington Post:

The department’s interim chief, Vanessa Wilson, said police officers must be allowed to deviate from the written procedure depending on the different scenarios they face in the field.

In a statement on Twitter Monday, she publicly apologized to the Gilliam family and offered age-appropriate therapy to the children involved in the incident. Her agency would examine new practices and training around high-risk stops, she added.

Yet Teriana Thomas, Gilliam’s 14-year-old niece and one of the girls who had been pinned down, said there was little the police could do to regain her trust.

“It’s like they don’t care,” she told KUSA. “Who am I going to call when my life is in danger?”

https://boingboing.net/2020/08/04/police-mistakenly-pull-black-f.html