Justin

Donald Trump is right — the U.S. voting system is totally rigged!

It’s not rigged against him, though. It’s rigged against people without much money, and people who are members of any number of minority groups.

Some of the rigging is by design, and dates all the way back to the Founding Fathers. Some of it is simply a byproduct of an economic system where the top 0.1 percent have almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent. Some falls somewhere in between.

Add it all up, and it constitutes a gigantic obstacle to regular people using their purported power to run our purported democracy.

Here are some of the ways in which the voting system is rigged, few of which are ever discussed in American elections — which some might say constitutes its own kind of rigging.

1. You have to register to vote.

Between one-quarter and one-third of American adults, up to 50 million people, are eligible to vote but aren’t registered to vote.

That’s ridiculous. Why do American adults have to take a special, extra step to govern themselves?

Many other countries, including France, Italy, Chile, Israel, Sweden, Denmark and Finland, all register everyone to vote automatically. Not coincidentally, they have much higher voter turnout than we do.

The unregistered are younger, poorer and less white than registered voters. They’re also more likely to support progressive political policies, such as a higher minimum wage and a financial transactions tax.

The good news is that five states — Oregon, California, West Virginia, Vermont and Connecticut — now have near-automatic voter registration, and many other states are considering it. Hillary Clinton has called for the federal government to push all states to make it happen.

2. Election Day is a work day

The less money and power you have, the harder it is to take time off from work to vote.

Many states now have early voting, but some do not. Even if you can vote early, the rules are different everywhere and often change. We should expand and standardize early voting but also, as Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed, make election day a national holiday.

3. Gerrymandering and geography

In 2012, a slight majority of Americans voted for a Democrat for their congressional representative. Nevertheless, 54 percent of the elected representatives were Republicans.

This was thanks to both gerrymandering and the tendency of Democratic voters to live in dense cities. Currently Republican state legislatures use computer software to pack Democratic voters into as few districts as possible, creating the characteristically bizarre gerrymandered shape. But computers can also be used to create districts that look “fair” — i.e., compact and contiguous — and these would still put Democrats at a disadvantage because Democrats have by choice packed themselves into a few small places.

This is a problem that may not have an easy answer. Gerrymandering is to some degree in the eye of the beholder. Cities are probably going to remain highly Democratic. Some people believe it would be best to turn states into “multimember districts,” so that if the state sends seven representatives to the House, everyone in the state would get seven votes and would choose their top seven candidates.

4. Many felons can’t vote.

6.1 million Americans can’t vote this year because they’ve been convicted of a felony. 2.2 million of them are African American; in Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia more than 1 in 5 black adults can’t vote.

No other country works like this. The solution here is simple: As in France, Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Peru, Poland and Romania, everyone should be eligible to vote, including those convicted of felonies and even those currently in prison.

5. Voter suppression.

Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of today’s conservative movement, cheerfully explained in 1980 that “I don’t want everybody to vote. … Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

Republicans have taken this perspective to heart for decades, and are doing their best again in 2016 to reduce the number of people voting. Popular methods include purging voter rolls of eligible voters, reducing polling times and places, requiring photo ID to vote and voter intimidation.

6. No Instant Runoff

Instant runoff voting, which was recently used in the London mayoral election, lets third-party supporters vote for their first choice without fear they’ll act as spoilers and help elect their least favorite candidate.

Here’s how it works: Voters rank as many candidates as they like in the order of their preference, from first to last. If a candidate gets a majority of first choice ballots, he or she wins. If not, the last place candidate is eliminated – and his or her votes are distributed to the candidates who were the second choice of the eliminated candidate’s supporters. And so on. (If this sounds confusing, a Minnesota Public Radio video explains it in a clever way using post-its.)

In terms of this election, a Jill Stein voter who loathes Trump and lives in a swing state can’t vote for Stein without helping Trump. With instant runoff voting, such a Stein supporter could rank Stein as his or her first choice, Clinton as his or her second, and Trump last or not at all.

There is a built-in bipartisan consensus against any such move, however, since it would weaken the two-party duopoly that runs U.S. politics.

7. The Senate

The Senate hugely magnifies the power of small states. Deep red Wyoming, population 582,000, has two senators. So does deep blue California, with a population of 38.8 million, 66 times greater than Wyoming’s.

That is so rigged!

The Senate’s ability to slow or stop change is why it was created in the first place. As James Madison, the main author of the Constitution, put it in 1787: “Our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation” and “protect the minority of the opulent against the majority.” The Senate, Madison said, should be the part of the government designed to do this.

8. You can’t vote for the Federal Reserve

The U.S. economy is like a car with two gas pedals and two brakes. Congress controls one of each, but the Federal Reserve controls the others.

Its seven governors are appointed by presidents to 14-year terms. Even worse, the Federal Open Market Committee, which controls interest rates, is made up of the seven governors plus five members who are presidents of the regional Federal Reserve Banks. The regional presidents are chosen in a process that’s largely controlled by banks.

9. Corporate America is more powerful than politicians

As John Dewey, one of America’s most important pro-democracy philosophers, wrote in 1931, “politics is the shadow cast on society by big business.”

This could be seen most clearly in the 2008 Wall Street bailout. Not only did the biggest banks have the power to destroy the U.S. economy in a way no politicians ever could, they easily forced the entire political system to stop everything and give them what turned out to be trillions of dollars.

On a smaller scale, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump hope to slash the tax rate on multinational corporations even though I’m guessing this is not one of your top priorities.

Whew, that’s a long and depressing list. But don’t give up: That list used to be much, much longer, yet regular people have been successfully fighting to shrink it for 240 years. There’s no reason to believe we can’t make it shorter still or eventually eliminate it altogether.

So go vote! There’s a reason this list exists, which is that democracy is powerful and dangerous and lots of people want to limit it. Don’t let them.

The post Nine Ways the U.S. Voting System Is Rigged But Not Against Donald Trump appeared first on The Intercept.

Never used a lavalier mic before? This should help.

When it comes to filmmaking, sound is one of those things that you can't afford to get wrong. In situations where your boom mic needs some backup, or just won't cut it at all, lavalier microphones are effective tools for recording audio as close to a subject as possible without being visible in the shot. The first thing you should know is that they're also called lavs, neck mics, lapel mics and clip mics. In this video by RocketJump Film School, you get to learn all of the important basics of using lav mics, so when you need one you can use it like a pro.

The video shows you what a lav mic is (as well as transmitters and receivers), common placement and concealment techniques, and how to monitor your audio. However, if you're up for a bit of a challenge and want to learn some more advanced lav mic concepts and techniques, we've got you covered.

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A confidential, 120-page catalogue of spy equipment, originating from British defense firm Cobham and circulated to U.S. law enforcement, touts gear that can intercept wireless calls and text messages, locate people via their mobile phones, and jam cellular communications in a particular area.

The catalogue was obtained by The Intercept as part of a large trove of documents originating within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, where spokesperson Molly Best confirmed Cobham wares have been purchased but did not provide further information. The document provides a rare look at the wide range of electronic surveillance tactics used by police and militaries in the U.S. and abroad, offering equipment ranging from black boxes that can monitor an entire town’s cellular signals to microphones hidden in lighters and cameras hidden in trashcans. Markings date it to 2014.

Cobham, recently cited among several major British firms exporting surveillance technology to oppressive regimes, has counted police in the United States among its clients, Cobham spokesperson Greg Caires confirmed. The company spun off its “Tactical Communications and Surveillance” business into “Domo Tactical Communications” earlier this year, selling the entity to another company and presumably shifting many of those clients into it. Caires declined to comment further on the catalogue obtained by The Intercept or confirm its authenticity, but said it “looked authentic” to him.

“By design, these devices are indiscriminate and operate across a wide area where many people may be present,” said Richard Tynan, a technologist at Privacy International, of the gear in the Cobham catalogue. Such “indiscriminate surveillance systems that are not targeted in any way based on prior suspicion” are “the essence of mass surveillance,” he added.

 

The national controversy over military-grade spy gear trickling down to local police has largely focused on the “Stingray,” a single type of cellular spy box manufactured by a single company, Harris Corp. But the menu of options available to domestic law enforcement is enormous and poorly understood, mostly because of efforts by both manufacturers and their police clientele to suppress information about their functionality and use. What little we know about Stingrays has often been the result of hard-fought FOIA lawsuits or courtroom disclosures by the government. When the Wall Street Journal began reporting on the use of the Stingray in 2011, the FBI declined to comment on the grounds that even discussing the device’s existence could jeopardize its usefulness. The effort to pry out details about the tool is ongoing; just this past April, the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation prevailed in a federal court case, getting the government to admit it used a Stingray in Wisconsin.

Unsurprisingly, the Cobham catalogue describes itself as “proprietary and confidential” and demands that it “must be returned upon request.” Information about Cobham’s own suite of Stingray-style boxes is almost nonexistent on the web. But starting far down on Page 105 of the catalogue is a section titled “Cellular Surveillance,” wherein the U.K.-based manufacturer of defense and intelligence-oriented hardware lays out all the small wonders it sells for spying on people’s private conversations, whether they’re in Baghdad or Baltimore:

 

The above page immediately stood out to ACLU attorney Nathan Wessler, who has made Stingray-like devices a major focus of his work for the civil liberties group. Wessler said “the note at the top of the page about the ability to intercept calls and text messages (in addition to the ability to geo-locate phones)” is of particular interest, because “domestic law enforcement agencies generally say they don’t use that capability.” Also remarkable to Wessler is the claim that cellphone users can be “tracked to less than 1 [meter] of accuracy.”

Tynan said Cobham’s cellular surveillance devices are, like the Stingray, standard “IMSI catchers,” deeply controversial equipment that can be used to create fake cellular networks and swallow up International Mobile Subscriber Identity fingerprints, calls, and texts. But he noted that such devices can operate on a vast scale:

The Cobham devices in this catalogue are standard interception devices with the ability to masquerade as 1-4 base stations simultaneously. This would allow it to pretend to be 4 different operators or 4 base stations from the same operator or any combination. These specifications allow for the interception of up to 4 calls at a time. The operational distance of these devices would be around 1-2 KM for 3G and significantly greater for 2G devices. Devices of this type can typically acquire the unique identifiers of handsets at a rate of 200 per minute.

Cobham also offers equipment capable of causing immense cellular blackouts and bulk data collection, including the “3G-N” — operated via laptop: 

The mammoth “GSM-XPZ PV,” meanwhile, has a maximum output power of 50W, which would make it comparable to cellular antennae constructed by the likes of AT&T or Verizon. Anyone inside its radius (potentially miles from the box itself) could be subject to invisible surveillance.

The slimmer “GSM-XPZ HP Plus,” which appears to be operated via a handheld device, can “take control of target phones” and “create [an] exclusion zone to deny GSM network coverage,” the catalogue states.  

Also noteworthy are two “direction finding units” — trackers used for following the location of someone’s smartphone (and presumably its user). One, named the “Evolve4-Hand Held Direction Finder,” actually allows a soldier or neighborhood police officer to carry a hidden antenna inside his clothing that he can use to track someone’s whereabouts:

Another, similar device uses a larger antenna that can be mounted onto any car — a design that raises an eyebrow for Wessler: “The low profile means that it is difficult to identify police use of the technology.”

This low-profile technology not only allows agents in a vehicle to track someone’s location via their mobile phone, but it is also “designed to work with any GSM manipulation,” presumably meaning cellular jamming and interception.

Tools for covert spying make up a large part of the catalogue, particularly in the audio and video surveillance sections, where sensors are hidden in everything from pocket knives and birdhouses to suspenders:

 

Elsewhere in the catalogue, Cobham boasts of a corporate history going back more than 70 years, brags about tripling in size since 1997, and talks about “clients and partners in over 100 countries.” Among the company’s stated goals are “to keep people safe and to improve communications.”

But the proliferation of spy tools like those sold by Cobham is actually eroding safety, according to Tynan. “As we move to a more connected world where cars, toys, fridges, and even implantable devices contain miniature cellphone technology, the capability to cause harm using one of these devices becomes ever greater,” he said. “It is unacceptable for our modern critical infrastructure to be so vulnerable to such interception,” and therefore “it is vital that the international standards that underpin our communications are built to the highest security standard possible.”

Correction, Sept. 2: The original version of this story misstated the relationship between Cobham and Domo Tactical Communications.

Sign up for The Intercept Newsletter here.

The post Leaked Catalogue Reveals a Vast Array of Military Spy Gear Offered to U.S. Police appeared first on The Intercept.

If you want to add music to your projects (without getting flagged on YouTube and Facebook), check out Jukedeck. Instead of downloading random music that never seems to be a perfect fit, with JukeDeck you are able to customize the length, tempo, and set exact BPM to match your project perfectly. There's also an option for choosing when the music should Climax. So the music you create for sections of your project will have a proper intro and outro. Here's a quick demo.

Obviously, visit JukeDeck.com to register for your Free account and start creating your FREE music tracks.

Having a Facebook page is virtually essential for modern businesses, and now they might be able to reap some new benefits from it too. Facebook is rolling out two new sections to promote both goods and services that merchants sell on the platform. The Shop section lets businesses list products they’re selling, and allows customers to put in an offer through Messenger, while the Services lets them do the same for, well, services. You can list prices, along with a description and photos. The Shop section is only coming to Thailand, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, India, Argentina, and Taiwan…

This story continues at The Next Web

The majority of artists in the United States can’t afford to register their copyright with the US Copyright Office. While the internet makes it easier than ever to create and share works of art, it’s done little-to-nothing to help protect copyright and what few strides its made have largely benefited huge companies rather than smaller artists. Blockai wants to change all that by using the power of the blockchain to help you register and protect your work online. While copyright laws are still rather vague and corporate-centric, it’s not necessary for artists to register with the US Copyright Office to…

This story continues at The Next Web

“Do you know the difference between indulgence and sel [...]

The post Self-Care Is Not Optional appeared first on Asking for What You Want.

I must have walked on 27th Street between Broadway and 6th Avenue a million times. But somehow never noticed Master Cutting Table. Maybe the shutters were always down when I went by. Maybe I was too distracted by the neon of the weird old Senton Hotel. In any case, recently, deep in the depths of a rather bad mood, I came upon the miracle that is Master Cutting Table.



It was the decapitated Charlie McCarthy doll heads that caught my eye. And the mannequin in the vest and Spartan helmet. I got closer and looked in through the plate-glass window.

It was like looking into one of those panoramic Easter eggs as a kid. A whole world opened up. And, seeing what I saw, my mood instantly lifted.



American flags. Antique clocks. JFK and RFK posters. A bigger than life-size bathing beauty cardboard cut-out. Pressed-tin ceiling above and wooden floorboards below. A long path leading to the back of the shop through dozens and dozens of old garment industry machines:

Gold Stampers, Wire Stitchers, Rossley Button Machines, Defiance Foot Presses, Schaefer Cementers, Clicker Blocks, Rubber Pads.

Had I tumbled back through time? How could something so pure, so untouched still be permitted in the homogenized, stultified Manhattan of today? What delightful madness was this?



The lights were on, but the door was locked.

"This is our flag, be proud of it!" reads a sign on the door, below a "Back In" notice that doesn't indicate how many minutes will pass before they'll be back in. I waited around a bit, not wanting to stop looking. Eventually, I had to go, but vowed to return.



When I went back a few weeks later, it was the same scene: lights on and no one in sight.

I pushed the door. It opened with the tinkling of a bell.

I walked inside, unsure that I should be there, and tried to commit as much as I could to memory. The place smelled of age, of sweetly rotting paper, like a library. I breathed it in.



A silver-haired man emerged from a back door and came directly towards me, dressed all in black, his spine stiffly upright, his shoes shuffling.

"The door was open?" he said, indicating that it was not meant to be. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm admiring your shop," I said.

"Why? It's a dirty stinkin' hole!"

"It's beautiful."

"You shoulda seen it 60 years ago. It was a machine shop."

He ushered me to the door, adding, "Now we don't do nothin'."

"Nothin'?"

"Nothin'! When you're old, you'll understand. When you're married, you'll understand. In the morning, you kiss the wife goodbye and say, 'Seeya later, Sweetie, I'm off to work!'"

"So you don't do anything here? You don't sell anything, fix anything? You just do nothing?"

"Come back when you're 60 and I'll tell you all about it!"

He closed to the door behind me, locked it, and shuffled back down the long path to the back room where he does nothing all day. A man who just wants to be left alone in his dirty, stinkin', beautiful museum of a machine shop.




The site 14to42 says Master Cutting Table has been here since the early 1960s. It is run by a man named Arnold. A writer at Manhattan Sideways ventured in to the place one time. She reported:

"Asked what he does here, Arnold replied: 'nothing.' Asked why he comes in, then: 'I don’t want to stay at home. I love my wife of over sixty years, but sometimes you just have to get away.' Having invested in property in New York when it was not as astronomically expensive, Arnold now owns this building and has the luxury of using it as a 'day home.' He is holding out against selling to developers bent on transforming the space. 'I’ll let my kids make that mistake,' he says. 'You can walk with a straight backbone knowing you own property in New York. It’s a marvelous feeling.'"

Sigma has once again redefined how fast and sharp a zoom lens can be.

The engineers over there have done some incredible things, first with the tack sharp APS-C 18-35mm f/1.8, and now with the new APS-C 50-100mm f/1.8. The new 50-100mm f/1.8 — which will come in Canon EF, Nikon F, and Sigma SA mounts — joins the rest of Sigma's high-performing Art lens lineup, and is listed at $1,100. In addition, they've announced another new APS-C lens for their mirrorless line, the 30mm F1.4 DC DN, which will be available in Sony E and MFT mounts, and is listed at $340. Lastly, the previously leaked E-Mount adapter, MC-11, has also been announced, and will cost $250. Unfortunately it seems that it will only work with Sigma lenses out of the gate.

All three of these will be available in the next month or two.

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VANISHING

Charlie Mom Chinese restaurant has been in the Village since 1983. This coming Wednesday, August 26, will be its last day.

Why is it closing? I called to ask. "Rent going too high."


photo via Mitch Broder's NY

In 2011, Eater paid a visit to Charlie Mom.

"It's the sort of Chinese restaurant that was once seen in abundance in New York," wrote Robert Simonson, "the kind that makes cocktails and offers choices from Column A and Column B, and a Peking Duck meal for $19.95."

He continued, "Who comes here? I asked my waiter. 'Old man. Old woman,' he said with halting English and stunning frankness. I looked around. My eyes confirmed his blunt assessment. Nearly everyone was old. Very old. They talked of ailments and pensions."


photo: Daniel Krieger, via Eater

So another place that caters to older folks is getting the boot. Once again, it's not a lack of business. It's not because "people" don't eat Chinese food anymore. It's the rent. It's the rent. It's the rent.

Have a last meal at Charlie Mom between now and Wednesday at 464 6th Avenue near 11th Street. And if you want to the city to put a stop to these insane rent increases, join #SaveNYC and support the Small Business Jobs Survival Act.

Brian Clark, one of the original figures in the conceptualization of Indiewire and a major player in the transmedia and immersive storytelling communities, died today in New York surrounded by family and friends following a brief battle with cancer. He was 46.  Read More: Heartrending Tributes to Indiewire Co-Founder Brian Clark Clark co-founded the new media production company GMD Studios in 1995 and continued to run it for nearly 20 years. In 1997, he served as a producer and managing member of Indiewire during its initial iteration as a newsletter. "indieWIRE is a brand, dammit," he wrote in an internal memo to staffers during the late '90s, using the spelling that distinguished the site in its early days. "The independents are there, ready to be led together... and it's my belief that bringing them together will be at times explosive, at other times inspirational." While GMD Studios sold Indiewire to SnagFilms in 2008, Clark remained an active...

Today marks the beginning of Google I/O 2015. There are sure to be big announcements for Android, Chrome, and plenty more. You can watch the live stream at the video above, the link below, or follow our sister site Gizmodo’s liveblog here if you can’t tune into the video.

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As someone who routinely backs out of parties that I don’t want to go to (not yours, of course: I was really sick that time!), I couldn’t be more sympathetic to the fact that Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray didn’t attend last night’s Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I mean, sure, it sounds like it could be kind of fun, and being among the first people to see what Rihanna is wearing is a real privilege that shouldn’t be taken for granted. But, you know that Rihanna’s outfit will be all over the place online within seconds of her arrival, and if you stay home and hang out in your bed, occasionally checking the fashionable arrivals, complete with snarky commentary on Twitter, then you also get to avoid awkward conversations with whoever Anna Wintour deigned to seat next to you. Win-win-win-win-win infinity. But if you do the comfortable, relatable thing of skipping a gala? Well, then New York’s ultra-rich are going to whine about you to the Wall Street Journal just like the entitled babies they are.

In what might be the best PR move that he didn’t have to pay for, de Blasio was called out in the Journal for the fact that unlike his billionaire predecessor, Mike Bloomberg, the new mayor has literally no interest in attending most of the city’s high-profile society extravaganzas. This is the second year in a row that the de Blasios have declined to attend the Costume Institute Gala, and even though McCray had a conflict—she was being honored by the non-profit group, The Child Mind Institute—it is clearly impossible to some people that anyone would choose to go to some little non-profit event, rather than the society event of the year.

And as you can imagine, the super-wealthy are not taking this type of snub lightly. The Journal speaks to Peggy Siegal, “a New York City event publicist who orchestrates high-profile parties,” who says de Blasio clearly has “disdain for the striving, successful New Yorkers and I have been told by insiders that he always listens to his wife, who also has disdain for the accomplished… They obviously do not relate to New Yorkers who socially network to support charities. They have made themselves socially irrelevant. It is a major shortcoming not to mingle with all classes.”

Yes, those terrible, commie de Blasios need to reassess their priorities and spend more time at parties where they can rub elbows with billionaires. How dare they.

In fact, though, it’s gotten so bad that it isn’t just a case of the de Blasios not attending these parties—now, they’re sometimes not even invited:

Organizers for New Yorkers for Children, a charity that benefits the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, said it would include Ms. McCray on future event mailing lists. A spokeswoman for the New York Botanical Garden said public officials weren’t invited to its Conservatory Ball.

Joking aside, attendance by political figures at these types of events are usually centered around getting money from deep-pocketed potential donors, money which the city could obviously use. Base and gross as that might seem, it’s just politics as usual, and as a life-long politician, de Blasio knows that. However the fact that the city’s wealthiest are so miffed by the de Blasios lack of interest in their society parties that they would punish the city by not donating as much as they have in the past? The city that has become their virtual playground? Well, that’s a lot grosser than anything de Blasio has done so far.

Follow Kristin Iversen on twitter @kmiversen

The goal is to increase competition among Internet providers and spur better prices and service.

I. Around the World

Things I found on long walks in foreign cities, or perhaps when someone posted them on Twitter.

• Routines of Famous Creative People (Interactive Version) — How different artists and writers worked, partied, and sometimes even slept
• An Insanely Simple 3 Step Guide For Killing Procrastination — How to schedule your most important work—and ensure that it actually happens
• Not Dead Yet: How Some Video Stores Are Still Thriving — Blockbuster’s long gone, but a few independent video stores have taken a different approach
• Roberto Saviano on the Fear of Assassination — An Italian writer has been living under armed guard for eight years
• Why Diners Are More Important Than Ever — Includes the 8 characteristics of how you know you’re at a diner
• When It Comes to Sunk Costs, Are Children and Animals More Rational than Adults? — Some research suggests that adults have it all wrong

---

II. On the Blog

A few posts you may have missed on the blog this week.

• The Beauty of Traveling Solo — On the Road with Megan Van Groll
• A Night at the Airport — Unlocking travel master status is a lot like riding a bicycle
• Sleeping in Hong Kong on My 100th Visit — People say you can’t learn about a city in a short period of time, but what if you stay in a city for a short period of time over and over and over?
• An Honest Conversation About Debt in America — After filing for bankruptcy herself, photographer Brittany M. Powell is traveling across America to interview other people struggling with unexpected debt
• Limited Time: Use Southwest Airlines Points to Fly a Companion Free — Learn how to qualify for the much-desired Companion Pass for a whole year

---

III. A Blast from the Past

Something from the AONC archives.

• How to Be Unhappy — A list of ways to be truly discontented

###

Image: Vicky Wasik

When you're out doing your grocery shopping, you'll see a lot of fancy terms floating around that try and entice you to buy a product. Even a household staple like eggs are not immune to these bloated words. Here's an explanation of some of the most misleading terms.

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smdxn:

Off duty, black cops in New York feel threatened by fellow police officers

Reuters interviewed 25 African American male officers on the NYPD, 15 of whom are retired and 10 of whom are still serving. All but one said that, when off duty and out of uniform, they had been victims of racial profiling, which refers to using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.

The officers said this included being pulled over for no reason, having their heads slammed against their cars, getting guns brandished in their faces, being thrown into prison vans and experiencing stop and frisks while shopping. The majority of the officers said they had been pulled over multiple times while driving. Five had had guns pulled on them.

Desmond Blaize, who retired two years ago as a sergeant in the 41st Precinct in the Bronx, said he once got stopped while taking a jog through Brooklyn’s upmarket Prospect Park. “I had my ID on me so it didn’t escalate,” said Blaize, who has sued the department alleging he was racially harassed on the job. “But what’s suspicious about a jogger? In jogging clothes?”

The NYPD and the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, the police officers’ union, declined requests for comment.

This explains white privilege. The entire world identifies with racist judicial system propped up by racist law enforcement. #ferguson #ericgarner

Yet police want to connect sociopath cop killer with average protesters.

Here’s the deal, people may be fucked up, but not all of us took oath to protect and serve the community.

Around ten lawsuits were filed against the NYPD every day, according to a new analysis by I Quant NY of a city report that also says most suits were "primarily of allegations of police misconduct, civil rights violations, and injury and/or damage from accidents involving police vehicles."

Read more...

get-you-wet:

bvsedjesus:

KU JOURNALISM MAJOR SHREDS “CASE” AGAINST MIKE BROWN

Shelby Lawson is a student at the University of Kansas, majoring in Journalism and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Lawson posted the following to her Facebook page: 

“Alright y’all. I’d like to clear a few things up. This is a general address to the long list of misconceptions and inconsistencies and abuses of power that exist surrounding the killing of Mike Brown. I have researched these points and provided sources in case you wish to do some reading of your own.

-The most common misconception I’m hearing is that Mike Brown was significantly larger than Officer Wilson. This is incorrect. On page 198 of the official grand jury transcript, you can see that Officer Wilson testifies he is 6 ft 4 and weighs 210 lbs,the same size as Mike Brown.

(source)

-Mike Brown was NOT stopped because he was a suspect in crime. He and his friend Dorian Johnson were stopped for jaywalking, as Darren Wilson testifies to on page 208 of his grand jury testimony.

-Mike Brown WAS fleeing from Officer Wilson when he was fatally shot. Wilson confirms this on page 281 of his grand jury testimony.

-Officer Wilson broke police self-defense protocol, which teaches to disarm and incapacitate rather than kill and teaches officers to go for body shots. Officer Wilson shot Mike Brown twice in the head, after he shot him four times in his arm and torso.

(source)

-Ferguson Police ignored protocol and refused to interview or take a statement from the eyewitness present from Officer Wilson’s initial contact with Mike Brown until his death.

(source)

-The forensic examiner broke protocol by failing to take crime scene photos. On page 95 of the grand jury transcript, she claims that this was because her camera had died, however, she goes on to describe how she immediately followed Wilson to the hospital in order to photograph his “injuries.”

-Forensic investigators broke protocol by failing to test Officer Wilson’s gun for fingerprints, since Wilson claims that Brown grabbed his gun and caused it to misfire. Page 39, grand jury transcript.

-Darren Wilson was then allowed to break protocol by washing the blood off of himself before it could be photographed, making it impossible to analyze blood spatter patterns and determine what position Mike Brown was in when Wilson first shot him. Wilson recounts this on page 10 of his official police interview.

(source)

-While Officer Wilson’s story of what happened that day has changed at least three times, six separate eyewitnesses, four of whom have never met each other, all have identical accounts of what happened. They were never interviewed by police.

(source)

-These eyewitnesses all agree that Darren Wilson was the aggressor and that Mike Brown was shot while surrendering, with his hands in the air and that his last words were “I don’t have a gun. Stop shooting.”

-This is backed up by Mike Brown’s autopsy, which suggests that Mike Brown would have had to be in the hands-up position for the bullets to enter his hand and arm the way they did.

(source)

-Furthermore, in a press conference, the coroner who performed Mike Brown’s autopsy relays that there was no trace of gun shot residue anywhere on his body, proving that Wilson’s claim that Mike Brown grabbed his gun, causing it to misfire, is impossible and untrue.

(source)

-Ferguson Police lied about the distance Mike Brown was from Officer Wilson when he was killed. They reported it was 35 ft. but it was in fact 148 ft.

(source)

-Owner of Ferguson Market states that he did not call police to report a theft of cigars, that the theft had nothing to do with Mike Brown, and that the man on the security footage is not Mike Brown.

(source)

-The prosecuting attorney for the case against Darren Wilson has helped raise $600,000 in donations for Darren Wilson, creating a clear conflict of interest.

(source)

-The police department that Officer Wilson worked for prior to coming to Ferguson was disbanded after multiple instances of racial profiling.”

(source)

Source

please read this

VANISHING

You've probably heard by now that, after 110 years in business, DeRobertis in the East Village will be gone as of December 5. It wasn't the rent this time. The family decided, with great pain, to sell the building.



This one hurts like hell.

I'd like to say something more eloquent, but that's all I've got right now.



That and who took the antique coin from the floor?

For a million years--or 193--a half-dollar from 1821 sat in the very center of the cafe, embedded in the tiles, in the middle of a flower, in the middle of a star. Some said that a mobster put it there, maybe Lucky Luciano, but it was likely just the guy who put in the floor.


photo from a few months ago by Kyle Supley

Today there's just an empty space, an imprint of an eagle in the cement where the coin used to be. Soon, that's all we'll have of DeRobertis, a ghostly remnant of something wonderful and real, something connected to history, something with a story to tell.



As John DeRobertis described the place to Bedford & Bowery, "When people came in here, they knew the people working behind the counter. We felt a closeness. That’s what I’m going to miss the most. You go into any of these chain coffee shops, you’re just a person and they’re robots. Everybody has a job to do. You give the order to this person, this person makes it, this person gives it to you, that person cashes you out. Here, I think people felt at home."

What will move in next? God help us if it's a fucking Starbucks. Of course, as Annie DeRobertis told me back in 2007, that's what today's stunad East Villagers want.

She said: “People come in and tell me I don’t know how to make cappuccino. They tell me, 'Starbucks makes it this way.' I tell them, 'I’m here before Starbucks.' They want flavors. I tell them, 'I got flavors. You want a flavor? I’ll put it in.' Put it in? They look at me. Do these people really think the coffee bean grows in flavors? Like it comes in hazelnut and mint? These are people with college educations. But they want Starbucks. So I tell them, very nicely I say, 'So go to Starbucks.'"

Eventually, that will be the only choice.

Our recent Writing 101 and Writing 201 Blogging U. courses were a huge success — so we thought you should be able to enjoy them even if your schedule didn’t allow you to take them in real time.

We’re happy to announce that both courses are now offered as free ebooks, available for download in .pdf, .mobi (Kindle), and .epub (iBooks) formats. While conceived with nonfiction writers in mind, fiction writers (we know you’re out there, NaNoWriMo participants!) could find both courses just as useful.

Which ebook should you choose?

Writing 101: Build a Blogging Habit was initially designed as a four-week course. It includes 20 writing prompts, each with its own (optional) twist to push your writing in new directions, from improving your descriptions to thinking about voice and pace. In ebook form, now you can follow the course at your own rhythm and in any order you wish.

Writing 201: Finding Your Story, an intensive four-part course, focuses on editing your unpolished or unfinished drafts into compelling narratives. Loaded with advice and practical tips, this ebook will help you hone some fundamental storytelling skills, like creating powerful openings and writing engaging scenes.

Of course, you don’t actually need to choose — why not give both a try? (Did we mention they were free?)

---

While you’re ebook-browsing, don’t forget our other available titles: 365 Writing Prompts, Photography 101, and Grow Your Traffic, Build Your Blog.

Filed under: Better Blogging, Resources, Writing

You may have a good excuse to stay up late tonight. A rare total lunar eclipse, where the Earth casts a shadow over the entire Moon, is due to start at 12:53AM Eastern. Our celestial neighbor should be completely enshrouded by 3:06AM, producing an...

January 1st, 2014 from theC47 on Vimeo.

 

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Notes: 2013 was my busiest ever both for producing/productions and for teaching. A very strange second half of the year but all around really good stuff. Big plans for 2014. No resolutions. Just decisions that will require hard word. I am also switching to Vimeo Pro for the new year and this is the first episode of gearbox and theC47 content being hosted there. 

Thanks for all the support and for believing in theC47. Lots more to come in 2014.

-Jem 

Yesterday, Cathryn Swan of the Washington Square Park Blog organized a rally in the park to save its hot dog vendors against the wrath of socialites. Thanks to reader Lois, a former vendor in the city's public parks, for sending in these photos from the event.


all color photos by Lois

As Swan first revealed on her blog (complete with secret documents!), a private group of "wealthy women" have incorporated themselves into a conservancy, a.k.a. "a little friends group," and are pushing to boot the “unsightly” hot dog vendors from the park, replacing them with more upscale food carts, along with a cart from celebrity restaurateur Mario Batali that will be allowed to remain. (Batali is on the board of the little friends group.)



The upper-crust cabal is run by John Leguizamo’s wife, Justine, and socialite Veronica Bulgari. John Leguizamo defended himself on Twitter, saying, “I wanna keep the hot-dog guy," and "We had nothing to do with it. The park did it on their own and we became the scapegoat.”

On the same day of the rally, the Post reported that the Parks Department was reconsidering its decision.



This isn't the first time that hot dog vendors have had to fight for their right to exist. Bloomberg got strict with them, his inspectors overcharging fines for various infractions. Also in the 2000s, the city tried to boot Vietnam veteran hot-dog vendors from in front of the Met. The vets won.

Rudy Giuliani tried the hardest to get rid of them in his 1990s Quality of Life campaign. As the Times wrote in 1998: "There is a difference between making the streets safer and cleaner and making war on the New Yorkness of New York City. In his zeal for order and obedience, he must not destroy the lively street scene that is part of the city's historic flavor. No one misses the squeegee men, but do we really want to outlaw the corner hot-dog stand?"

Ed Koch also cracked down, sweeping vendors from the busier streets for creating too much clutter. As the Times reported him saying in 1988, "This is not supposed to look like a souk."



Somehow, the hot dog carts and their vendors have come to symbolize disorder, disobedience, and the untamed spirit of the city. Maybe that's why many of us love them so much. They are among the last vestiges of the real New York, not controlled by big national chains and not branded "artisanal" with jacked-up prices.

The hot dog cart is utterly democratic. For over a century, it has been a low-threshold entryway to business for immigrants and others. There is nothing exclusive about the hot dog cart. It is not pretty and it resists control. That's exactly why it is problematic to the new urban elite, especially in today's luxury New York.



After too many years of Amanda Burden, we've had enough of socialites dictating what the city is all about. Will Mayor de Blasio continue the war on wieners? Or will he give the humble and historic hot-dog cart (and its vendors) a break?


Hot dog vendor, 1910, via New York Times

Go bags come in all shapes and forms—well, quite a few, at least—and vary based on use and profession. Reader Fred Wobbler uses his to fix audio problems.

Read more...

We're all just trying to lead a happy life and while the characters in cartoonist Scott Adams' comic strip, Dilbert, don't seem to have a clue on how to achieve that for themselves, Adams himself does, and it doesn't require that much work.

Read more...

 
As the editor of a blog that used to generate a lot of traffic with virtually any item, however small, that mocked Sarah Palin, believe me when I tell you that five years after her debut on the world stage, no one really cares that much about the snowbilly grifter anymore.

Not like they used to. Not even close.

Nope, an item on Sarah Palin will bring in a negligible amount of traffic, so little, in fact that it’s not even worth the effort anymore. “Sarah Palin does something stupid AGAIN” has stopped being effective as “click bait,” in the same way that “Glenn Beck says something outrageous AGAIN” has. Or “The 25 greatest moments from Murphy Brown” (as actually seen on Yahoo! earlier this week, I didn’t make that one up). Or whatever idiocy Ted Nugent is into. Who gives a shit about these assholes? No one does. At least our readers don’t. You let us know loud and clear how disinterested you are in these people and we see the evidence of this on Google Analytics, ChartBeat, and in Twitter, Facebook and Google+ shares.

Which brings up the question: Does a Sarah Palin appearance on The Today Show, or even Fox News, really bring in ANY extra eyeballs? Based on my own (admittedly left-leaning, but very large as these things go) control group, I’d have to wager that the answer is a definite “NO.” Going on what I’ve seen, she’s a total bust these days. Doesn’t move the needle on the traffic dial. Flatline. Nothing. Why do we still see her all the time saying “words” in the “lamestream media”? I honestly couldn’t tell you, but given that every newsgathering or content aggregating entity has access to the very same traffic measurement tools that I have, I don’t expect that she’s got much left cultural currency after this current round of “war against Christmas” media appearances to promote her new book that someone else wrote, for people who don’t read…

Having said all that, I certainly would have thought there would have been a terrific amount of interest in an NBC correspondent suggesting that Sarah Palin should have someone shit in her mouth and piss in her eyes, and this is exactly what Martin Bashir did in an MSNBC commentary segment on Friday that is, for the most part, only being discussed on the right.

How did this escape wider notice?

If you will hit play, you will see one of the most incendiary things I have ever seen someone say on a cable news channel about another person… ever.

Incendiary, sure, but I’d have to say… he’s right. Without further ado, here’s Martin Bashir saying what a lot of people think about Sarah Palin: