Nelson's Linkblog 2018-11

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Pentagon regularly shifts money and hides spending from Congress. They recently they failed a private audit.

2018-11-30 pentagon • government • politics • fraud

Voting fraud in North Carolina?

Some evidence of misconduct involving absentee ballots

2018-11-30 politics • voting • fraud • northcarolina • absentee

Blockchain in practice

0% success rates, no callbacks. There is something real there but the hype far outstrips out

2018-11-30 blockchain • business • database • computing • fraud

90s style virtual reality turned into a modern game

2018-11-30 games • vaporwave • tootme • brokenreality • vrml

N.K. Jemisin profile

Another chat and discussion

2018-11-30 scifi • writing • jemisin • nkjemisin • books • tootme

Gerrymandering beats Blue Wave

North Carolina and Pennsylvania's gerrymandered districts both held strong against a major increase in people voting Democrat

2018-11-29 gerrymandering • politics • northcarolina • pennsylvania • elections • voting • votingrights

Google Dragonfly internal details

For its Chinese product Google bypassed security and privacy reviews, generally tried to keep the project secret internally

2018-11-29 google • china • privacy • badtech • security • hacking • dragonfly

NewScientist calls for the end of for-pay academic journals

2018-11-29 academics • science • openculture • tootme • freeculture • sciweb

Thoughtful interview. She also has a new book of short stories out

2018-11-29 scifi • writing • books • jemisin • nkjemisin • environment • tootme

Playground / Observable

Nice demo of the powerful notebook-style computing for Javascript in your browser

2018-11-29 computing • javascript • d3js • observable • notebooks • jupyter • tootme

event-stream attack

Details on the subtle Bitcoin-stealing malware

2018-11-29 malware • badtech • npm • javascript • tootme • bitcoin

Trimmigrants in 2018

Fluffy piece on what it's like doing manual work for marijuana

2018-11-29 marijuana • weed • pot • tootme • trimmigrants • california • labor

Amit Patel has reached a stopping point on his latest generative procedural map project

2018-11-28 maps • generative • proceduralgeneration • games • tootme • amitp • amitpatel

YouTube annotations

Waxy writes a loving summary of an underloved YouTube feature

2018-11-28 youtube • video • art • tootme • waxy

Parody map backfire

Man tweets Thanksgiving pie map as a joke. People freak out.

2018-11-28 maps • funny • parody • politics • tootme • pie • thanksgiving • visualization

Kink is not the problem

Nuanced article about reporting on Google sexual harassment; being kinky isn't the problem, it's being abusive

2018-11-28 sex • lgbt • kink • bdsm • polyamory • google • sexualharassment

What we've learned after a few years of the HIV prevention drug

2018-11-28 gay • lgbt • prep • std • medicine • health • tootme

Everyone's favorite homoerotic saint

2018-11-27 saints • catholicism • art • sebastian • stsebastian • funny • tootme

USGS malware from porn

Government employee visited *9000* porn sites in 7 months, downloaded Russian malware to USB, etc

2018-11-27 hacking • badtech • politics • porn • government • security • russia

Interview with the new Nancy writer

2018-11-26 comics • nancy • funny • tootme • via:metafilter

Esri and Winning

Danger of a software monopoly in the GIS market

2018-11-26 esri • opensource • software • tootme • maps • cartography • gis

Android ad fraud

$100MM+ stolen by apps that wrongly take credit for installing other apps

2018-11-26 android • ads • fraud • badtech • tootme • google

332 people in Trump/Russia

A list of everyone named in relation to the Mueller investigation

2018-11-25 mueller • trump • politics • corruption

Dampr Python data processing

Data processing library intended for large datasets on a single machine

2018-11-25 python • dataprocessing • via:reddit • dask • tootme

Handling Trump's lies

Lakoff forcefully explaining how Trump's lies are effective distractions

2018-11-25 trump • politics • truth • lying • biglie • propaganda • media • journalism

Thanksgiving a Yankee holiday

Slaver states in the South considered Thanksgiving a provocation

2018-11-24 thanksgiving • holiday • america • history • slavery

Hasn't been dredged in years, barely navigable

2018-11-24 petaluma • river • california • tootme • dredging

Detailed article from last month about creating the masterpiece

2018-11-24 games • rdr2 • rockstar • tootme • reddeadredemption

Sentinelese contact

The supposedly uncontacted island tribe had an ugly encounter with a British coolonialist in 1880

2018-11-24 sentinelese • india • andamans • anthropology • history • colonialism • tootme

USPS security hole

60M users' data exposed, exploit was disclosed a year ago and USPS didn't act

2018-11-22 usps • security • badtech • government • incompetence

Facebook child slavery

16 year old girl auctioned off on Facebook

2018-11-22 facebook • slavery • sudan • southsudan • tirefire

Nevada City shelter cruelty

Homeless shelter operator says they will open *after* three days of rain; not on the first day when three days of rain are predicted

2018-11-22 homeless • cruelty • politics • nevadacity • grassvalley • nevadacounty • shelter

Collection of photos of the most fun form of mass transit

2018-11-21 funicular • transit • train • tootme • photos • photography

4-H LGBT rights vs Trump

Trump administration pressures the youth group to be cruel to transgender kids

2018-11-21 4h • politics • lgbt • trump • transgender • 4-h

Nevada County's lesbian sheriff

Nice profile of Shanann Moon, newly elected sheriff

2018-11-21 lgbt • politics • nevadacounty • grassvalley • tootme • gay

Sentinelese invasion

Jackass missionary tries to preach to the isolated island tribe, gets killed

2018-11-21 religion • india • andamans • sentinelese • tootme

Google inaction

Walkout protesting Google management problems hasn't gotten the demanded action

2018-11-21 walkout • google • protest • sexism • harassment

Whitaker's shady $1.2M

Payments from an opaque non-profit, possibly illegal, unclear what they were actually for

2018-11-21 whitaker • politics • corruption • trump

$200M election stunt

The border deployment of the Army cost $200M. They are leaving before the caravan even arrives

2018-11-21 military • trump • politics • scandal • outrage

A tool for catching hardware errors from Intel CPUs

2018-11-20 intel • kernel • linux • hardware • tootme • daemon

Iraqi Dinar scam

People convinced that Iraq's currency is going to go up 10,000x any day now. In the Trump era they have become particularly vulnerable to scams

2018-11-20 iraq • dinar • fraud • scam • trump • politics • funny • schadenfreude

Instagram password stupidity

Company is storing plaintext passwords internally somewhere, sharing them in URLs

2018-11-20 instagram • badtech • facebook • security • password

Pompeo's plan for Kashoggi

Can't vouch for the news source, but a plausible story the US is trying to help the Saudis cover up their de facto ruler's ordering the murder of a journalist

2018-11-20 journalism • politics • saudi • saudiarabia • trump • pompeo • kashoggi

ContraPoints profile

Another nice interview / description of what Natalie Wynn is doing

2018-11-20 contrapoints • criticism • culture • feminism • transgender • lgbt • tootme

Trump in Pleasure, CA

Short video of him getting the name of the town he was visiting wrong

2018-11-20 paradise • california • trump • politics • dementia

Life now in Chico

Living near the Camp Fire is misery

2018-11-19 campfire • fire • california • buttecounty

Nice optical illusion in a real world context

2018-11-18 illusion • opticalillusion • cursedimage • via:reddit

Together we make a family

A sweet editorial about an American family with various unique characteristics and challenges

2018-11-17 america • disability • littlepeople • politics • tootme

Visiting the Whitney Plantation

America's first honest plantation museum, the history of slavery

2018-11-16 slavery • museum • history • america • tootme

Working around DRM and other bullshit in medical devices to manage your own care

2018-11-15 cpap • snoring • apnea • hacking • medicine • via:hackernews • tootme

Walters, Kim cry about votes

Two House candidates in California start crying about vote fraud without any evidence. Seems solely because it looks like they will end up losing to absentee ballots

2018-11-15 politics • california • voting • votingrights • election • voterfraud

Air quality index

Exactly what these AQI scores mean (they differ by country)

2018-11-15 air • pollution • smoke • tootme • weather • aqi

Signature match is stupid

Written signatures are an increasingly obsolete method of authentication. They were never very good.

2018-11-15 voting • votingrights • politics • georgia • florida • signature • verification • authentication

Nice generative art project

2018-11-14 tootme • art • generative • polygons

/r/leagueoflegends bans Riot sexism discussion

Most popular English forum for the game apparently has a new policy of not allowing discussion of the continuing story of sexism and lawsuits against the company

2018-11-14 riot • riotgames • lol • leagueoflegends • games • reddit • moderation • policy

European language map

Very detailed map with an emphasis on minority languages

2018-11-14 maps • languages • linguistics • culture • europe • tootme

Google steals NHS data

DeepMind goes back on a promise to never share its health data with the rest of Google

2018-11-14 google • deepmind • privacy • health • nhs

Tripartite Identity

Separate user ID from login ID from display name / public ID

2018-11-14 identity • login • webdev • tootme • habitat

Old school project to use economics as a basis for computer system design has a new life as smart contracts

2018-11-14 bitcoin • ethereum • agoriccomputing • agoric • computing • tootme

Vocaloid / Hatsune Miku music as a sort of soundboard

2018-11-14 music • fun • hatsunemiku • vocaloid • via:metafilter • tootme

Queer radicalism in Appalachia

Diversity exists all over the country

2018-11-14 appalachia • queer • lgbt • politics • via:metafilter • tootme

Remarkably well composed photo

2018-11-14 bart • meth • sanfrancisco • transit • photo • tootme

Flickr export mini-review

I exported my photos from Flickr, here's what's in the export bundle

2018-11-14 flickr • photos • export • archive • tootme

Major new article studying the idea that young people are having less sex. The details are much more complicated.

2018-11-13 tootme • sex • relationships • psychology • america

Google BGP hijacked

All traffic to a big chunk of Google services was routed to China and Russia after a small Nigerian ISP made a mistake

2018-11-13 badtech • bgp • nigeria • internet • tootme • google

I Hanker for a Hunka Cheese

Childhood memories of TV ads masquerading as public service announcements

2018-11-13 tv • ads • cheese • tootme • food • abc

Eve Cemetery explained

Article with screenshots about the in-game graveyard

2018-11-12 eveonline • eve • games • cemetery • tootme

Eve Online has a player-run cemetery, where corpses are in permanent orbit around a moon

2018-11-12 eveonline • games • mmos • cemetery • corpse • tootme

RIP email security

Another true crypto believer gives up

2018-11-12 email • security • badtech • signatures • tootme • via:robey • pgp

A simple / lightweight page framework

2018-11-12 skeleton • html • css • development • web • tootme

Gerrymandering job

Princeton hiring someone to collect data for OpenPrecincts, a project to let citizens participate in redistricting

2018-11-12 tootme • politics • gerrymandering • districts • redistricting • openprecincts

Princeton Gerrymandering Project

Academic team working on gerrymandering from a technical and statistical point of view

2018-11-12 gerrymandering • politics • princeton

44,631 people imprisoned by ICE

Record number, and more than there is funding for

2018-11-12 ice • immigration • politics • trump • dhs

Palm Beach can't count votes

They lack the machines and process to get the recount done by deadline. This aids the Republicans.

2018-11-12 politics • election • voting • votingrights • florida

Globe interface to streaming radio all over the Internet

2018-11-12 maps • via:hackernews • streaming • radio

Genesis P-Orridge update

Dispatch from the Temple Ov Psycick Youth

2018-11-11 tootme • throbbinggristle • genesis • via:metafilter

Raffi on social media and fake news

CNBC interview with the Democrat's CTO

2018-11-11 cnbc • politics • raffi • journalism • lisbon

Brooks Brothers riot

Paid Republican operators shut down a vote recount in Florida in the year 2000

2018-11-11 florida • politics • elections • voting • votingrights • republicans • gop • bush • sweeney

Multimember districts

Argument that the US should return to having a Congress where each district is larger, elects several representatives

2018-11-11 congress • politics • house • gerrymandering

Argument we should expand from 435 congresspeople to 593

2018-11-11 politics • america • gerrymandering • congress

About ContraPoints

Year old article about the YouTube phenom, a leftist transgender philosopher who is hilarious

2018-11-11 youtube • contrapoints • trans • lgbt • transgender • tootme

Florida congressman's vote tossed

Former Congressman had his vote discarded because signatures didn't match

2018-11-11 florida • voting • politics • votingrights

Inside the border deployment

5600 Army soliders doing their job, as dumb as it might be

2018-11-10 army • politics • trump • border • faithfulpatriot

History of the 17th Amendment

Until 1913 senators were appointed, not elected. It took a threatened constitutional convention to change that

2018-11-10 politics • america • elections • tootme • senate • constitution • 17thamendment

Twitter vs Saudi Activists

Heartfelt editorial on how Twitter is failing and endangering Saudi activists

2018-11-10 twitter • saudi • saudiarabia • politics • protest • safety

Dick Code (NSFW)

Police sketches for penises. (cis and anatomy normative)

2018-11-10 penis • funny • gay • lgbt • tootme

Election problem in Indiana

One county's election was a complete logistical mess. Sounds like incompetence, not malice, but a good example of how polling can be poorly executed

2018-11-10 indiana • election • politics • voting • votingrights

Local jackass loses election

A nice bit of payback in Dixon, CA

2018-11-09 dixon • politics • california • election • lgbt • bigotry

Broward County undervote

Details of the controversy of the Florida senate vote

2018-11-09 florida • voting • politics • ballot • votingrights

Kristallnacht photos

Horrible pictures of happy Nazis destroying Jewish homes, businesses, places of worship

2018-11-09 kristallnach • nazis • photos • history • germany • jews

Hiding from the Internet

Detailed instructions on how to remove information collected about you from public databases

2018-11-09 privacy • internet • security • tootme

Obamas used IVF

Michelle Obama discloses very personal story about having her children

2018-11-09 obama • michelleobama • ivf • pregnancy • tootme • miscarriage

Whitaker's appointment is unconstitutional

Interesting argument that Whitaker must be approved by the Senate before he can legally act as Attorney General

2018-11-08 politics • trump • whitaker

Details on faked White House video

Press Secretary apparently uploaded doctored video from a Nazi at Infowars

2018-11-08 infowars • propaganda • journalism • acosta • cnn • lies • trump • politics

Amazon now owns 3.0.0.0/8

Major purchase of IPv4 space, from GE

2018-11-08 amazon • internet • tcpip • ipv4 • addresses • namespace • tootme • ge • aws

Meaning of Acosta lies

Details of what conservatives are doing when they pretend to believe Acosta assaulted a woman on video

2018-11-08 acosta • cnn • politics • trump • propaganda • journalism

White House doctored video

Press secretary's version of Acosta protecting the microphone has been altered to look more violent

2018-11-08 acosta • cnn • politics • trump • lies • press • journalism

Georgia posts 300,000 voters' info

Everyone who voted absentee was listed in a spreadsheet on the public Internet by Kemp, the George Secretary of State / Governor candidate

2018-11-08 politics • elections • voting • votingrights • kemp • georgia

Florida re-enfranchises 1.5M voters

A big positive result in Florida, 1.5M people now have the right to vote again

2018-11-07 politics • florida • voting • votingrights

Wacky cold war bunker in Las Vegas

2018-11-07 coldwar • bunker • fallout • funny • tootme

Trump investigation strategy

A little inside baseball on what Democrats might do with the investigatory powers of the House

2018-11-07 trump • politics • corruption • democrats

Trump loses his shit on Acosta

Hideous behavior from our President, calls Acosta a horrible person and directly calls CNN "enemy of the people"

2018-11-07 politics • trump • cnn • acosta

A nice overview on the national trend of this election

2018-11-07 politics • maps • election • 2018 • bluewave

Citizen redistricting

4 states that are currently gerrymandered all passed new citizen redistricting laws

2018-11-07 redistricting • politics • election

Dropbox Python 3 rollout

Migrating all of Dropbox's customers clients to Python 3

2018-11-07 python3 • python • programming • dropbox • tootme • deployment

Trump atrocities

A catalog of 546 (so far)

2018-11-07 trump • politics • atrocity • immigration

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Well researched collection of naughty words, now free

2018-11-06 via:metafilter • tootme • slang • language • dictionary

StatCounter malware

Popular web analytics got hacked; maybe as much as a month ago. Many sites including op.gg affected

2018-11-06 malware • badtech • bitcoin • tootme • opgg

Riot Games sued

Gender discrimination lawsuit from a current and former employee

2018-11-06 riotgames • riot • lol • genderdiscrimination • harassment • games

US trust-based election

Reaction of foreign observers

2018-11-06 america • politics • voting • votingrights • voterid

Jamal Khashoggi obituary

Detailed, personal profile of a journalist apparently much loved by his colleagues

2018-11-06 tootme • saudiarabia • khashoggi • obituary • murder

Atlanta voting problems

Georgia's crooked Secy of State Kemp may well have delivered the voter suppression he needs to win the governorship

2018-11-06 atlanta • georgia • politics • voting • votingrights

Georgia patches holes

Voter system made more secure even while they denied they had any security problems

2018-11-06 georgia • voting • politics • votingrights • security

/VoterFraud tweeters

200 Twitter accounts with an enormously outsized presence falsely claiming there is voter fraud in the US.

2018-11-05 twitter • propaganda • politics • votingrights • voting

Limitations of current AI techniques; the systems aren't able to understand the meaning of things

2018-11-05 ai • programming • meaning • tootme • melaniemitchell

Death of a Kinkster

Upsetting story of the death of Jack Chapman, possibly related to abuse from his BDSM master Dylan Ray Hafertepen

2018-11-05 lgbt • kink • bdsm • abuse • hafertepen • death

Georgia voter vulnerabilities

Some technical details on security problems with Georgia's voter registration system

2018-11-05 georgia • voting • votingrights • security • badtech • politics

A meme's growth

Tracing the use of the phrase "jobs not mobs"

2018-11-05 politics • meme • twitter • jobsnotmobs

Georgia voting insecure

Voting system is vulnerable to anyone changing anyone's records; a Democrat reports that, immediately accused of hacking by their political opponent

2018-11-05 georgia • corruption • fraud • politics • voting • votingrights

Written Plains Sign

Native American Sign language had a written form, or at least one beautiful example thereof

2018-11-05 written • sign • language • tootme • indian • nativeamerican • plains

Teaching deep learning systems as a craft / skill in a few weeks

2018-11-04 programming • computerscience • deeplearning • ai • tootme • jobs • hiring

A form of water infrastructure developed by the Persians 2500+ years ago

2018-11-04 water • aqueduct • persia • iran • well • engineering • tunnel • tootme

Permanent minority rule

Gerrymandering, voter suppression, structural imbalances all lead to the Republicans ruling the US with only ~45% support

2018-11-04 republican • politics • america • election • gerrymandering • votingrights

Fascism is Not an Idea to Be Debated

Strongly worded op/ed on where America is today with incipient fascism

2018-11-04 america • politics • fascism

Search engine for ebooks; license not guaranteed

2018-11-04 ebook • search • books • reading • tootme

Bad population map

Jaw-droppingly bad visualization

2018-11-04 maps • visualization • funny • via:reddit • tootme

Hungary's loss of journalism

How Orban's authoritative government has undermined the press in Hungary

2018-11-04 politics • hungary • orban • journalism

2018 midterm challengers

Remarkably effective visualization

2018-11-03 politics • election • 2018 • midterms • visualization

Astérion the Minotaur

New puppet / vehicle / animatronics from La Machine

2018-11-03 tootme • art • france • nantes • toulouse • minotaur

ND Native American vote

Various quotes, etc about the heroic effort in North Dakota to comply with a racist voter ID law and protect the right of Native Americans to vote

2018-11-03 northdakota • voting • votingrights • politics • indian • nativeamerican

Scoring a redistricting plan

How to implement a tool to detect gerrymandering

2018-11-03 politics • planscore • gerrymandering • tootme • maps

Leave Land & Remain Land

A map of Brexit

2018-11-03 maps • brexit • politics • tootme

Welcome to Micro.blog

2 minute video showing the new blog / social media platform

2018-11-03 blog • microblog • twitter • facebook • tootme

Riyadh solar time

Best description I can see of the wacky timezone experiment where 00:00 was defined as "time of sunset in Riyadh"

2018-11-03 timezones • time • saudi • tootme • riyadh • pytz • tzinfo

Twitter voter suppression foiled

DCCC and DNC identifies accounts discouraging people from voting, gets them deleted

2018-11-03 twitter • politics • voting • votingrights • election

2018 political ads

Various map visualizations of what topics are in TV ads for the election

2018-11-02 election • politics • maps • via:reddit

Sexual harassment trap

Kelly on a culture where victims of sexual harassment get punished in their careers for reporting the harassment

2018-11-01 google • tirefire • sexualharassment • walkout • harassment

Voter suppression vs. midterm margins

Context on the political impact of denying 10,000s of people the right to vote

2018-11-01 politics • voting • votingrights • election

Location privacy and tech

Excellent, detailed article about how hard it is to hide where you are from modern tech

2018-11-01 technology • privacy • location • gps • tootme

Trump's racist political ad

Disgusting and overtly racist ad for the 2018 midterms

2018-11-01 election • politics • trump • racism • bracamentes

Tech / political donors

Summary of 10 people in the tech industry who are also big political donors / actors

2018-11-01 politics • tech • democrats • donation • pac

The Glass/Reggio classic updated for the Giphy age

2018-11-01 via:metafilter • music • koyaanisqatsi • funny • video • gif • tootme

Gay men and prostate cancer

Ways in which homophobia and the legacy of AIDS affects older gay men's health

2018-11-01 gay • lgbt • prostate • cancer • tootme

Prosecuting voters

Selective punishment of minor technical infractions

2018-11-01 voting • votingrights • elections • politics • georgia

GOP voter suppression

Summary of the Republican strategy of making it harder to vote

2018-11-01 republican • gop • voting • votingrights • politics • elections