Nelson's Linkblog 2017-02

about • archive • mastodon • feed

Riot Messaging Service

Erlang! They tested with Jepsen!

2017-02-28 riotgames • riot • lol • erlang • jepsen

Family of Trump campaign manager has their text messages, etc hacked

2017-02-28 trump • politics • badtech • hack

Bannon + Sessions

A history of American nationalist politics, now in the White House

2017-02-28 trump • politics • doj • immigration • sessions • bannon

"We did not steal any Google IP"

Uber exec volunteers, unprompted, that he certainly didn't steal any IP. He is now accused of doing that.

2017-02-28 levandowski • otto • google • uber

Uber breaking and entering

2016 incident where an investigator trespassed on a former employee's home

2017-02-28 uber • trespassing

Stephen Miller profile

Details on the guy driving Trump policy

2017-02-28 politics • trump • hate • racism

Password manager app security

Important security software has to date not been well reviewed

2017-02-28 security • badtech • passwords • via:hackernews

Tesla sexual harassment suit

Employee sues Tesla, describes sexist work culture

2017-02-28 tesla • harassment • feminism

The Reichstag Warning

Parallels of authoritarianism and demonization of religious minorities

2017-02-27 nazis • trump • politics • muslims

World's smallest cell phone

Sold explicitly to be smuggled into prisons via body cavities

2017-02-27 funny • rectum • phone • prison

Construction antics

2.5 minutes of hilarity trying to stop a runaway concrete buffer

2017-02-27 funny • construction • concrete

I am an Uber survivor

Another horrifying story of sexual harassment at Uber

2017-02-27 uber • sexualharassment • travis

Amit Singhal leaves Uber

Well loved engineering manager has a history of sexual harassment

2017-02-27 google • sexualharassment • amitsinghal • uber

Etak Navigator Tour & Demo

1991 video of the pioneering map and navigation system

2017-02-27 maps • navigation • etak

1985 navigation and digital mapping company

2017-02-27 via:hackernews • atari • history • gps • startups • navigation • deadreckoning • maps

Dining next to Trump

Funny story of a reporter staking out a table

2017-02-27 trump • politics • dining • restaurant • security

Computer science border tests

Border patrol doing weird things

2017-02-27 cbp • ice • border • immigration • politics

Trend in Internet markets is not good for competition

2017-02-27 internet • market • google • uber • amazon

2017-02-26 uber • monopoly • kalanick • startups

16 year old Canadian vs Milo

The video that surfaced was found by a liberal-leading young Canadian woman

2017-02-25 milo • politics

Levandowski profile

Uber's head of self driving cars has a history of ignoring regulations

2017-02-25 uber • google • ai • selfdrivingcars • levandowski

Women in astronomy

Reflection on the power of role models

2017-02-25 women • feminism • computing • astronomy

Reading Trump propaganda

Between the lines of the extraordinary WashPo story about Trump propaganda efforts

2017-02-25 trump • lies • propaganda • washpo • journalism • politics

Trying to collect US election data in one central place

2017-02-25 elections • politics • polisci • votes • gerrymandering

AIDS activist saves thousands of Londoners from getting HIV by importing medicine

2017-02-25 aids • hiv • prep • via:metafilter

Uber self-driving details

Some color on the unpleasantness

2017-02-25 uber • ai • selfdriving • levandowski • google

Fox fake Swedish expert

"Nils Bildt" is a fraud, not clear if Fox colluded or was duped

2017-02-25 sweden • immigration • politics • journalism • fox • foxnews

Trump vs the press

Friday Feb 24 was a significantly anti-democratic day

2017-02-25 trump • politics • freepress • despotism

Trump Russian propaganda

Administration asks intelligence, Congressional people to fight back on Russia ties

2017-02-25 russia • propaganda • politics • trump

The Comey Letter Debacle

Yet another take on the FBI meddling in the election

2017-02-25 politics • trump • clinton • comey • fbi

Mumps in Nevada County

Another outbreak of a vaccinatable disease

2017-02-25 disease • vaccine • california • nevadacounty • grassvalley

Protest suppression

17 states considering legislation to curtail free speech

2017-02-24 protest • politics • trump • freespeech • civilrights

Russian flag prank

Nice bit of culture jamming at CPAC

2017-02-24 cpac • politics • trump • funny • russia

Aussie snake wrangling

Doesn't get more strine, does it?

2017-02-24 australia • snake • funny

United to Protect Democracy

Watchdog group checking on the Trump administration's ethics compliance

2017-02-24 politics • trump • ethics

Otto / Uber stealing trade secrets

Google / Waymo allege former employees downloaded schematics, data, etc

2017-02-23 ip • intellectualproperty • tradesecrets • google • uber • theft • fraud • autonomouscars

Domestic ID checks

Update on the domestic flight where passengers had to show documentation on landing at JFK

2017-02-23 civilrights • passport • immigration • politics • cbp

Manafort blackmailed

More details of unsavory Russian/Ukrainian business of Trump's campaign chairman

2017-02-23 trump • politics • russia • ukraine • blackmail • scandal

Trump: immigration enforcement is military operation

Terrifying phrasing

2017-02-23 trump • politics • military • immigration

Google.org and racial justice

New donations for organizations working on police data

2017-02-23 google • blacklivesmatter • race • charity

I Was a Muslim in the Trump White House

Reflections on an unfolding horrorshow

2017-02-23 politics • trump • whitehouse • diversity • islam

Arizona vs protests

Blatantly unconstitutional bill passed in state senate

2017-02-23 Arizona • civilrights • protest • politics • rico • forfeiture

Understanding Congressional Gerrymandering

Some useful political background

2017-02-23 redmap • redistricting • gerrymandering • politics

Natural and Political History of the Gerry-Mander

Transcription of the 1812 newspaper article that led to the term "gerrymander"

2017-02-23 politics • gerrymander • redistricting

Moon Duchin fighting gerrymandering

Tufts mathematician working on measures of compactness, one component of redistricting

2017-02-23 voting • gerrymandering • redistricting • geometry • tufts

Advice for young trans people

Surviving in a hostile environment

2017-02-23 trans • lgbt • queer • civilrights

Customs checking local flights

Passengers on an SFO->JFK flight are having ID checked

2017-02-23 customs • ice • harassment • civilrights • immigration

Reflecting on Susan Fowler’s Reflection

A women engineer at Uber responds to the original stories of sexual harassment

2017-02-23 uber • women • employment • sexualharassment • feminism

Uber: a human tire fire

More gossipy insider detail of what it's like to work at Uber

2017-02-23 uber • employment • sexualharassment • startups

SHA-1 collisions

Practical methods to subvert the cryptographic hash

2017-02-23 crypto • cryptography • security • sha1

Babysitting Trump's ego

Former staffers talk about managing the President as if he were a seven year old child

2017-02-22 trump • politics • ego • media • twitter • press

You reposted in the wrong Overwatch

A delightful video remix meme. /cc @bookscout

2017-02-22 overwatch • meme • funny • jeffkaplan

Antivirus breaks SSL

Many so-called security products are actually weakening SSL security

2017-02-22 browser • security • badtech • ssl • antivirus

US border homophobia

Enraging story of a Gay Canadian being harassed at the US border (pre-Trump)

2017-02-22 gay • lgbt • border • canada • america • politics

Milo and the Lost Boys

Culture of young men trolls in politics

2017-02-22 milo • politics • trump • trolls

CIA demoralization

Career intelligence officer and his reasons for leaving. (Spoiler: Trump)

2017-02-21 politics • trump • cia

RIP Texas Monthly

Surprisingly good long form journalism outlet is changing direction

2017-02-20 texas • journalism • texasmonthly

Details on an associate of Trump with extensive Russian connections

2017-02-20 russia • politics • trump • scandal

legislative redistricting

geodata expert gets up to speed on politics and mapping

2017-02-20 maps • politics • districts • redistricting • gerrymandering

Trump + InfoWars

Trump is speaking regularly on the phone with nut-job Alex Jones

2017-02-20 trump • politics • insane • conspiracy • infowars

Bypassing safety measures in extreme circumstances

2017-02-20 military • safety

Trump psychology at work

Our very own North Korean terror leader

2017-02-20 america • northkorea • politics • trump • nuclear

Uber management disasters

Sexual harassment run rampant in engineering

2017-02-19 uber • engineering • software • tirefire • sexualharassment

First Lady worked illegally

She illegally did paid modelling work on a visitor visa. (Story is from Nov.)

2017-02-18 melania • trump • politics • immigration • firstlady • visa

Pres. Supervillain

Dropping Trump words into Red Skull's mouth

2017-02-18 comics • funny • trump • politics • parody • redskull • via:metafilter

Padilla vs voter suppression

Political nastiness vs. Californians' right to vote

2017-02-18 voting • california • padilla • trump • voterfraud • votingrights

Tragic story of a young Iranian refugee being held in limbo in PNG, by Australia

2017-02-18 australia • iran • refugee • png

Alabama populists

A bit of American political history

2017-02-17 history • alabama • populism • politics • america

Conflict between career staffers and political bosses

2017-02-17 epa • politics • trump

Against deletionism

BoingBoing writer describes a problem with delete-happy Wikipedia editors

2017-02-17 deletionism • wikipedia • culture

Outside Your Bubble

BuzzFeed testing a feature to show a diversity of opinions

2017-02-17 politics • news • buzzfeed • journalism

National Guard and ICE

Trump administration denies this frightening plan was ever taken seriously

2017-02-17 nationalguard • immigration • civilrights • trump • politics

Flynn not authorized to take Russian pay

2015 paid TV appearance was apparently not approved by the Pentagon, his employer

2017-02-17 flynn • russia • politics • trump

4chan and Trump

A history of how hateful meme culture became politically influential

2017-02-17 4chan • memes • via:metafilter • internet • culture • chanology

Shep Smith on Trump lies

Even Fox News isn't going along

2017-02-17 trump • lies • politics • foxnews

Some examples of Microsoft's database interface technology

2017-02-16 microsoft • linq • sql • .net • programming

Trump's response to being caught in a lie

Bizarre equivocation, assertion of dominance

2017-02-16 trump • politics • lies • cnn • voting

PewDiePie in context

Corrosive culture of lulz

2017-02-16 pewdiepie • youtube • racism • lulz • culture

Stephen Miller on Twitter

Little used account engages with a lot of bizarro right wing hate stuff. This article may not be accurate.

2017-02-16 twitter • politics • trump • stephenmiller

Sync two filesystems with frequent rsync; uses inotify to detect changes

2017-02-16 filesystem • network • rsync • sshfs • nfs

2016 US election interference by Russia

Exquisitely detailed and sourced Wikipedia summary

2017-02-15 elections • politics • russia • trump

Confide snakeoil

Communications app used by Trump staffers is not secure

2017-02-15 security • badtech • confide • signal • trump • politics

Voter ID law impact

Laws suppress minority votes, as is intended

2017-02-15 voting • votingrights • voterid • civilrights • politics

Islam in SE Asia

Very detailed explanation for the spread of a religion

2017-02-15 religion • via:metafilter • islam • indonesia • malaysia

Mysterious Russian spy death?

On election day, in New York

2017-02-15 nyewyork • politics • russia • trump • election • espionage

A nice appreciation for 90s gay stereotype cmoedy

2017-02-15 comedy • funny • kidsinthehall • racism • buddycole • gay • lgbt

Kompromat and Politics in DC

1950s story of gay blackmail

2017-02-15 alsop • politics • blackmail • lgbt • gay • russia

Inside the Recount

Details on the academic effort to verify the vote this year, sabotaged by political naivete

2017-02-15 politics • elections • security • recount • halderman • voting

Yosemite Firefall

Sunset illuminates a waterfall

2017-02-15 yosemite • photography • photos

"Transgender", not "transgendered"

Choosing correct words for politeness (and apologies for my mistake)

2017-02-15 lgbtq • lgbt • transgender • transgendered • language

Trump / Russia roundup

Scattered op/ed, but links to all of today's major stories

2017-02-15 trump • politics • russia • treason

Trump v Transgender teens

Refuses to help transgender kids in Texas

2017-02-15 trump • lgbtq • lgbt • politics • transgender • humanrights

Trump / Russia collusion

Details from the investigation into the campaign

2017-02-15 russia • trump • politics • treason

Inaccurate executive orders

More White House incompetence; can't even post correct version of dictats

2017-02-14 trump • politics • executiveorders

Mission Cinemas

Grand old movie palaces /cc @strongthomas

2017-02-14 movies • sanfrancisco • mission • history • theaters

Voter suppression efforts

Early salvos in state legislatures

2017-02-14 voting • civilrights • votingrights • politics

PewDiePie and Nazi jokes

One of the biggest YouTube stars makes some "jokes" in very poor taste

2017-02-14 pewdiepie • youtube • nazis

A list of news articles

2017-02-14 trump • politics • russia

Flynn resignation timing

Trump administration seemed OK with Flynn's undermining the President, until he got caught

2017-02-14 flynn • trump • politics • treason

Trump’s counter-jihad

Detail on the anti-Islam hate inside the administration

2017-02-14 trump • politics • islam • shariah • hate

Let America Vote

New voter rights organization

2017-02-14 politics • votingrights • civilrights • voting

Trump tweet analytics

Account uses bit.ly with public analytics

2017-02-13 trump • twitter • bitly • webtraffic • politics

Measuring gerrymandering

Using simulations of potential redistricting plans to evaluate the bias in the existing plan

2017-02-13 gerrymandering • politics • statistics

Quantifying Gerrymandering

Academic approach at Duke

2017-02-13 gerrymandering • duke • politics • statistics

National Democratic Redistricting Committee

Effort to address redistricting in 2021

2017-02-13 politics • gerrymandering • redistricting • holder • obama

Blue Detective conspiracies

A danger of opposing Trump; it's possible to fall down a rabbithole

2017-02-13 conspiracy • news • politics • trump • truth

The Meaning of Allahu Akbar

It's not a hateful phrase

2017-02-13 islam • religion • via:metafilter

Stephen Miller background

Trump advisor / spokesmouth, unpleasant memories from friends growing up

2017-02-13 trump • politics • racism

Fiddling at Mar-a-Lago

Meanwhile the fire is being lit on the Korean Peninsula

2017-02-13 trump • politics • corruption • japan • northkorea

Oroville flood maps

Projection of where the water could go

2017-02-13 oroville • california • flooding • dam

False voter fraud claims

More debunking of Miller's spreading of lies

2017-02-12 miller • politics • trump • voterfraud • elections

CIA cartography

Declassified maps, a treasure trove of cartographic arts

2017-02-12 maps • cia

14% of noncitizens are not registered to vote

Trump talking point is based on a nonsense study

2017-02-12 trump • politics • voting • electionfraud

Trump tweets Morning Joe

Trump cited an article that is enormously critical of him

2017-02-11 trump • politics

Visualization Lies

Various tricks for dishonest presentation of data

2017-02-11 lies • visualization • data • statistics

LoL net neutrality suit

Riot Games sues Time Warner Cable over packet tampering

2017-02-11 lag • riotgames • timewarner • isp • monopoly • ftc • fcc

Overwatch update

Delightful thing of people editing Jeff Kaplan videos

2017-02-11 games • overwatch • funny • tigore • jeffkaplan

Details from Frederick Douglass on how slaveowners used food and alcohol as means of control

2017-02-11 america • history • slavery

Toxic Wikipedia

Findings about abusive behavior by editors

2017-02-11 abuse • wikipedia • community

2017-02-11 sunrise • toronto • photo • rainbow • colors

How Cubans cope with smartphones that can't practically have data connections

2017-02-11 cuba • tech • osm • caching

The actual Bowling Green Massacre

White supremacist had plans and arms to murder African-Americans and Jews

2017-02-11 terrorism • nazis • politics • trump • bowlinggreen

Not Working in the Trump Administration

Former Obama tech/policy staffer on his reasons for not staying on

2017-02-11 obama • politics • trump • amac

A new protest movement focused on local communication with representatives

2017-02-11 government • protest • politics • trump

He Will Not Divide Us shut down

Violent altercations at video protest lead to shutdown

2017-02-11 trump • politics • violence • art

GitLab post-mortem

Cascading failures lead to an ugly outage

2017-02-11 gitlab • postmortem • database • postgresql • devops

Ancestry DNA/genealogy study

Major analysis of American communities and migration

2017-02-10 america • genetics • genealogy • ancestry

Trump dossier parts verified

Corroboration of some of the intelligence that came out about Trump

2017-02-10 trump • politics • russia • espionage

Flynn lies on Russia

Denied contact, had frequent contact undermining Obama's authority

2017-02-10 russia • politics • flynn • obama

Cursive typewriters

A vernacular of the 70s, popular with church bulletins

2017-02-10 typewriter • font • church • design

Profile of a League of Legends pro and his Vietnamese immigrant experience

2017-02-09 vietnam • immigrant • lol • games • leagueoflegends • hai

Skate Schools in Afghanistan, Cambodia and South Africa

2017-02-09 skater • afghanistan • via:reddit

Photo series from Humans of New York

2017-02-09 iran • photos • culture • style • via:reddit

Two rad looking skaters in Iran

2017-02-09 iran • via:reddit • skater

Redistricting school

Tufts is running a 5 day program on math and GIS of voting districts

2017-02-09 tufts • college • voting • gerrymandering • civilrights

Steve Bannon and Biosphere 2

1995 video clip of an odd part of Bannon's career

2017-02-09 bannon • politics • biosphere2 • biosphere • ecology

Mechanical Turk for Politics

Penny work sites got contracts to support Betsy DeVos

2017-02-08 corruption • politics • devos • trump

LGBT in The Sims

Nice history of evolution in a video game

2017-02-08 games • lgbt • gayrights • sims

Blizzard economy

Blizzard is letting you buy virtual goods across games with in-game currency

2017-02-08 games • economics • blizzard

Networking Zine

Basics of how the Internet works in zine form

2017-02-08 internet • comics • zines • awesome • networks • tcpip

ACLU Dash Button

Mad at politics? Press a button to give $5 to the ACLU

2017-02-08 aclu • politics • swearjar • hack

Polari church service

Mischief in the Church of England

2017-02-08 church • gay • lgbt • polari • funny

Larsen C Ice Shelf crack

About to become the biggest iceberg ever

2017-02-07 antarctica • science • globalwarming • climatechange • iceberg

Interstates as Subway Map

Nice visualization of American highways

2017-02-07 maps • highways • interstates

FOIA obfuscation

Have to send requests by telegram or something

2017-02-07 foia • fbi • transparency • government • corruption

Erica and Ellen vs Trump

Erica Joy and Ellen Pao speak truth to power at Crunchies

2017-02-07 crunchies • politics • trump • ericajoy • ekp • ellenpao

InfoWars + Trump

Latest insane statement that media hides terrorist attacks seems to originate at infowars

2017-02-07 infowars • propaganda • trump • politics

Trump's war on reality

Increasing strategy of saying all news articles about him are false

2017-02-06 media • trump • politics

Vizio viewer tracking

Your TV was snooping on what you watched and reporting it to marketers

2017-02-06 tv • privacy • surveillance • ftc • internetofshit

Update on various resistance efforts

2017-02-06 trump • politics • tech

Paris is Burning after 25 years

A smart critical reading

2017-02-06 parisisburning • lgbtq • drag • queer

Paris Has Burned

1993 article on how many of the stars of the drag movie had already met a dismal fate

2017-02-06 drag • lgbtq • queer • parisisburning

"Another Kent State"

Disturbing violent rhetoric

2017-02-06 protest • kentstate • trump • politics

Conway and Bowling Green massacre

She's repeated this false belief for years.

2017-02-06 lies • conway • trump • politics

doonaldjtrump.com

Disturbing little art piece

2017-02-06 trump • politics • parody • via:metafilter

Beyoncé critiques

Calling out ill-advised criticism of pregnancy photos

2017-02-06 photos • Beyoncé • culture

2017 Wind Games

Beautiful new gymnastic sport, indoor skydiving

2017-02-06 sport • gymnastics • dance

Death to the Gerrymander

Political context for the efficiency gap metric

2017-02-06 redistricting • gerrymandering • politics

Gerrymandering Efficiency Gap

A simple numerical measure of a political process

2017-02-06 voting • election • gerrymandering • maps

Hitler and Trump

Taking a comparison seriously (and responsibly), mostly about the distortion of truth

2017-02-06 trump • politics • hitler • press • media • truth

Tech companies on immigration

Amicus brief filed on behalf of most of the tech industry

2017-02-06 tech • politics • trump • immigration

On Variance in League

How League of Legends deals with randomness in their game

2017-02-06 games • lol • randomness • leagueoflegends

Trump after two weeks

Gossipy view of what it's like inside the White House

2017-02-06 trump • politics

Our Part in the Darkness

Acknowledging American responsibility for Trumpism

2017-02-06 trump • politics • america • usa

Psychology of cheating

Reflections on why people forgive the Patriots

2017-02-06 patriots • psychology • cheating

84 Lumber Super Bowl ad

Great short film political commentary / brand advertisement

2017-02-06 immigration • superbowl • trump • politics

Nice visualization breaking out Arctic and Antarctic

2017-02-05 climatechange • globalwarming • seaice • visualization • ice • climate • arctic

What Steve Bannon wants

Effort to understand the worldview of the man behind the throne

2017-02-05 trump • politics • bannon • fascism

Trump's first two weeks

A simple summary of Presidential actions

2017-02-05 trump • politics • via:metafilter

Appalling Trump quotes

Highly biased but well sourced list of awful things Trump believes and does

2017-02-05 trump • politics • response

Directing Lone Wolves

Details of ISIS spycraft techniques

2017-02-05 ISIS • terrorism

SNL Spicer parody

Remarkable performance

2017-02-05 funny • trump • politics • seanspicer

“Hello My Game is…” article

News article about Invader's exhibit

2017-02-05 spaceinvader • invader • paris • art

Un oeil qui traîne: Invader

Photos and something like a catalog of the Invader exhibit

2017-02-05 invader • spaceinvader • paris • streetart

Invader - Hello my game is ...

Major exhibition by the Paris street artist Space Invader. /cc @mariuswatz

2017-02-05 art • invader • spaceinvader • paris

That Day In Bowling Green

Folk music for our times

2017-02-04 music • trump • politics • funny • bowlinggreen

Trump corruption

$97,830 in taxpayer bills for a Trump family business trip

2017-02-03 corruption • trump • politics

Thiel scams New Zealand

Investment shenanigans

2017-02-03 thiel • politics • trump • newzealand

100,000 visas revoked

Trump immigration ban has bigger impact that thought

2017-02-03 trump • immigration • politics • visas

AIDS Memorial Quilt

Zoomable interface

2017-02-03 aids • hiv • lgbt

Attacks on academic freedom

Well reasoned article about a right wing strategy of provocation

2017-02-03 trump • politics • milo • berkeley

20 point guide to defending democracy

Pithy notes from a history professor

2017-02-03 politics • trump • resistance • democracy

Satire account, it's funny because oh god it may be true

2017-02-03 satire • parody • trump • politics • funny • cnn

Baylor enabling rape

Text messages from coaches trying to "help" football players

2017-02-03 football • baylor • texas • rape • rapeculture

Details of the decision that led to Trump not acknowledging Jews' suffering in the holocaust

2017-02-03 trump • politics • holocaust • jews

Why Kalanick quit Trump

Internal pressure at Uber from employees

2017-02-03 trump • uber • kalanick • politics

Border non-transparency

Lawyers struggle to find out what's happening in border patrol holding at airports

2017-02-03 immigration • trump • politics • humanrights

Inauguration emotions

Interesting visualization of emotional language in presidential speeches

2017-02-02 politics • visualization • trump • emotion • sentiment

2012 Mission protest

An older case of masked provocateurs doing stupid things at Bay Area protests

2017-02-02 protest • bayarea • california • mission • politics

Mongolian writing systems

Interesting diversity

2017-02-02 writing • mongolian • language • script

Trump in McSweeney's

Trump's jaw-dropping Black History speech, recontextualized in a satire column

2017-02-02 trump • politics • funny • blackhistory

Simple Windows app to switch which audio output device you're using

2017-02-02 sound • audio • windows • headphones

Intermediate Axis Theorem

Nice physics explanation video

2017-02-02 physics • via:reddit • rotation • ksp • kerbalspaceprogram

Martian Immigration Nightmare

2017-02-02 games • papersplease • mars • elonmusk • trump • politics • immigration

Trump and Black History Month

Jaw-droppingly narcissistic speech

2017-02-02 trump • politics • blackhistorymonth • culture

History of a much loved Nevada City restaurant

2017-02-01 restaurants • grassvalley • nevadacity