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19 Sep 16:06

The Forgetting

by Jae Miles

Author : Jae Miles, Staff Writer

“Lie back, Daniel Sixteen. This will be over in under five instants.”

I swing my legs up and settle into the logro, feeling the soft curves adjust to the contour and temperature settings supplied by my envi. Things have definitely come long way from my last forgetting. Not that I remember the exact details, but the echo of certainty – what used to be called déjà vu – hints me true.

Yarrie Four-Twenty Clone smiles and rests her hand on my brow, her entire forearm tailored to convey reassurance and gravitas with that single contact: I am safe in competent hands.

“Please drop your envi.”

A simple request that causes me more discomfort than the fact I am about to have three decimillennia defragmented. When one lives forever, the little things become so tiresome: shower temperatures, seat posture preferences, tea flavours and strengths, they all take up time and matter. So we have attotech personal processors – envi – to carry those environment invariables and free our matter for living.

I drop my envi and feel a lack that I cannot name. Then a grey twisting streaks across my conscious, is gone, and I feel lighter. My envi restarts without prompting.

“Arise, Daniel Sixteen. You are cleared.”

Man’s technology has allowed him to live forever. In conjunction with the need to limit the number who are permitted to do so, there is a need for those of us who are permitted immortality to remain sane – some early horrors taught us that lesson well.

The postulated problems with memory turned into hard limitations until selective memory removal became a science, two centuries after its genesis in the torture chambers of MK-Ultra. Amnesia is not enough: an amnesiac has simply lost the way to a memory, not lost the memory itself. Brains have a finite capacity and only a limited way to tidy up – after all, organically we’re still designed for around a hundred years of thinking at most.

The memory removal process has retasked an old term, and ‘defragmentation’ is what immortals voluntarily undergo. Formative memories – the first four decades – are inviolate. Apart from that, you can choose what you keep: the Euphorics only retain joyous events, Glooms keep their disappointments close, Screamers retain extreme events, Horrors retain catastrophes, and so on. The gamut is similar to the old book and film genres, but since we can come back from anything bar a total brain incineration, we are our own entertainment. Vicarious pleasures are a thing of the past for the eternals, and those who do not qualify for immortality can watch us for their entertainment.

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12 Sep 15:47

Second Shot

by submission

Author : Patrick Hueller

The footage is grainy, and getting grainier with each viewing. But Peter Nevins doesn’t notice. To him, what’s on screen is crystal clear. The TV isn’t flickering; the colors aren’t blurry.

There the soccer field is, looking just as it did exactly thirty-seven years ago. The grass remains as green as ever, as chewed up from two weeks of competition.

There the other players are, frantic, scrambling, converging.

There the clock is—not technically on the screen—it was extra time, and they didn’t put extra time on the TV back in the ’80s—but it’s ticking away in his head just the same: “9 . . . 8 . . . 7 . . .”

There the goalie is, striding, slipping.

And there Peter’s younger self is, among the other players but slightly ahead of them, surprised to find the ball at his feet, the net unoccupied.

“Calm down,” Peter tells his younger self. “You have time.”

But his younger self doesn’t listen.

He rushes the shot. A wide open net, but he sends the ball high and wide.

There’s the sound of the other shot, the other kind of shot, and there’s Peter crumpling onto the field.

There’s the blood, blooming on his jersey.

He was lucky, everyone had said.

An inch or two to his right, they said, and bye bye heart.

They’d called the shooter a fanatic, a lunatic, a soccer-watching sociopath.

And in his head, Peter has always known they were right. He should forget about that guy, just as they advised him. Forget about the whole day.

One bad day doesn’t define a person, they’d said—let alone one bad moment.

In his head he knew they were absolutely, unequivocally right.

As for his almost-bullet-ridden heart, though . . . well, it won’t let him forget.

For thirty-seven years, he and his heart have spent the anniversary of that day pleading with the footage.

Relax, they’ve implored his younger self. Slow down.

You have plenty of time, they’ve insisted. The net’s wide open.

Go in, they’ve begged the ball. Please. This time please go in.

That’s what he’s doing now. Pleading. Supplicating. He’s on his knees, straining his eyes at the TV, beseeching the ball to find the net.

But it won’t.

No matter how many times he rewinds and re-watches, no matter how many years pass, the tape shows the same missed shots. One misses the net; the other misses his heart.

The same thing, over and over.

And yet he keeps going. Keeps rewinding. Keeps re-watching.

Again and again.

Each time, he’s sure the next viewing will be different.

After all, he’s done it before: thirty-seven years ago to the day, he wished for something so strenuously that he made it happen.

He wished to die.

As he watched the ball soar into the stands, he told himself that his life might as well be over, that someone might as well end it right there and then.

And, okay, this desire didn’t exactly come true, but it was pretty close. One or two inches, to be exact.

So maybe, just maybe, he can once again alter the course of events through the sheer force of his will.

He rewinds, re-watches.

Repeats.

Repeats again.

He watches the ball leave his younger self’s foot and he entreats the forces that be for a different outcome.

Please. Please. PLEASE.

And it works.

Finally.

After thirty-seven years and thousands upon thousands of viewings, the forces that be actually cooperate.

Instead of soaring, the ball merely rolls.

Slowly.

Honestly, Peter can’t believe how long it’s taking for the ball to cross the goal line.

Long enough for him to realize that he’s no longer a young man. He’s standing there, on the field—he’s somehow been transported from his living room back to this stadium—but he hasn’t regained any of his former leg strength. He’s still an old man, stiff and arthritic.

Which explains why the ball is rolling so slowly.

And why it comes to a rest right in front of the goal line.

He watches in horror as the goalie scrambles to his feet and scoops the ball up before Peter’s teammates can get to it.

He hears the referees’ end-of-game whistles.

And he shuffles, just in time, one or two inches to his right.

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02 Sep 17:01

Onion Farmers’ Support of Arctic Drilling Copies and Pastes Language From Oil Lobby Group

by Lee Fang

The National Onion Association — which is “the official organization representing growers, shippers, brokers, and commercial representatives of the U.S. onion industry” — wrote to government officials earlier this year to resolutely support Shell Oil’s bid to drill for oil in the remote wilderness of the Arctic.

The letter does not list any direct benefits for the onion industry. Almost all of the letter consists of language lifted directly from the Consumer Energy Alliance, an “astroturf” group funded by the oil industry, including Shell Oil. Consumer Energy Alliance is managed by HBW Resources, a lobbying firm that represents a drilling trade association that includes Shell Oil as a dues-paying member.

In August, after years of lobbying, Shell received a controversial permit from the Obama administration that allows the company to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic. The permit was approved after a final comment period in April that allowed the public to weigh in on the decision one last time.

Environmentalists and local communities sent in hundreds of letters and signed petitions, arguing that Shell is incapable of controlling a spill in a remote region of the world with limited infrastructure, which is known for stormy seas.

But the docket for public comment also features a few letters of support, including the letter from the National Onion Association, a group that is dedicated to reminding citizens that onions contribute “layers of flavor, color, and texture to a wide variety of dishes and cuisines.” Its website also provides many delicious-sounding recipes prominently featuring onions.

No one picked up the phone at the National Onion Association, nor did Executive Vice President Wayne Mininger, who signed the Arctic drilling letter, respond to a request for comment.

According to an online plagiarism tool, the National Onion Association’s pro-drilling letter is 78 percent identical to language from a Consumer Energy Alliance petition to support drilling in the Arctic. It appears the onion farmer letter only added a few non-substantial lines, such as: “On behalf of U.S. onion producers, shippers and allied industry …”

HBW Resources has helped to manufacture support for drilling initiatives in the past. Metadata from a letter signed by several governors associated with the Outer Continental Shelf Governors Association, which backs increased oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean, revealed HBW Resources had produced the documents. HBW and the Consumer Energy Alliance, using money from oil refiners and drilling companies, also helped create “grassroots” efforts to build public support for the Keystone XL pipeline.

The decision to open up the Arctic for drilling is receiving renewed attention this week as President Obama travels to Alaska, becoming the first sitting president to visit the Arctic Circle and witness the impacts of climate change.

The post Onion Farmers’ Support of Arctic Drilling Copies and Pastes Language From Oil Lobby Group appeared first on The Intercept.

02 Sep 15:29

Video captures Texas cops shooting man with raised hands

by David Kravets
Graphic scene at 56 seconds.

A Texas broadcaster has published video captured from a viewer's mobile phone that shows San Antonio police shoot and kill a man with his hands up.

Gilbert Flores.
The video, published Monday, shows deputies shoot 41-year-old Gilbert Flores outside a house where police were responding to a domestic disturbance call.

"He put his hands in the air and then he had his hands up for a few seconds and the cops shot him twice," Michael Thomas, the man who filmed the video, told CNN.

Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments

02 Sep 04:14

Phoenix Down, by Ali Aintrazi

by Ali Aintrazi
While you might think control is flat-lining in Standard right now, Ali refuses to let the archetype die. Inside he shows off three successful blue-based control lists that have performed well on Magic Online.
02 Sep 04:05

WYOMING

Bewarethewumpus

Also, legal weed.

Colorado,hilarious,rectangle,South Park,Wyoming

WYOMING is also a rectangle and way more boring than Colorado, Colorado has South Park

Submitted by: laurahonest

01 Sep 16:46

The One True Hoverboard?

by Ari Spool
20f

As more and more tinkerers and high-profile companies enter the hoverboard business, there are more and more answers to the question “what makes a hoverboard a hoverboard?” Exciting times to be alive.

01 Sep 14:46

The Super Mario Maker Manual Offers Helpful Life Advice, Too

by Patricia Hernandez

The Super Mario Maker Manual Offers Helpful Life Advice, Too

It’s been a long while since a video game manual made me laugh or feel warm inside. The Mario Maker manual is something else indeed.

Not only will you find some great tips on how to build courses in the Mario Maker manual...

The Super Mario Maker Manual Offers Helpful Life Advice, Too

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You’ll also find stuff like this in there:

The Super Mario Maker Manual Offers Helpful Life Advice, Too

The Super Mario Maker Manual Offers Helpful Life Advice, Too

Aww, Nintendo. You’re so cute when you try to be my digital mom. <3

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01 Sep 14:44

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

by Brian Ashcraft

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

Steam reviews are often quite funny! This time they might even be, dare I say, touching?

Originally, The Phantom Pain’s box art read “A Hideo Kojima Game” just like the previous Metal Gear Solid titles. But suddenly, it was removed, leaving people wondering if this decision was related to the rumored weirdness at Konami.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

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While the game’s promotional artwork no longer says “A Hideo Kojima Game,” Steam reviews sure as heck do. The “A Hideo Kojima Game” comment isn’t in every review, but it appears enough on Steam to be be noticeable.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

Some people had fun with it.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

Maybe too much fun.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

Or would shoehorn in the phrase at the end.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

Even people who didn’t recommend TPP had to admit: This is a Hideo Kojima Game.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

And then, there were some choice hearts for Konami.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, As Told by Steam Reviews

[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]

To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft.

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01 Sep 14:43

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

by Brian Ashcraft
Bewarethewumpus

And my opinion of Kimmel has just gone up. Way to take it in stride.

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

After Jimmy Kimmel’s YouTube jab backfired on Friday, the clip’s YouTube page and Kimmel’s Twitter were hit hard with criticism, anger, and insults. Tonight, Kimmel took a moment to address these comments. He might have made things worse!

“This is the most disliked video we’ve ever posted to YouTube, and we’ve posted thousands of videos to YouTube,” the late-night host told the audience.

Kimmel then went through a laundry list of not-so-flattering comments to poke fun and make jokes. He’s a comedian. That’s what comedians do. Watch the clip below and decide if you think he did it well!

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The way he seems to have made things worse was by inadvertently showing how out of touch he was with online culture. For example, when Kimmel was reading through one comment, he didn’t know what “smh” meant.

“What is smh?” Kimmel asked his audience.

“Shaking my head,” the audience replied.

“Oh,” Kimmel said. “Alright.”

Alright, indeed. At time of writing, the clip has 895 likes and 1,481 dislikes. Below, you can see some of the reaction to the clip:

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

Jimmy Kimmel Responds to YouTube Backlash

Again, making fun of things is much easier when you know what you are talking about! But I do bet Conan or Jimmy Fallon could make smarter Let’s Play jokes.

To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter@Brian_Ashcraft.

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01 Sep 02:26

I Sexually Identify as a Non-Stick Frying Pan...

by Brad
Cbb
01 Sep 02:25

“Wire Cutters,” a wonderful short film on the rough lives of off-world robot miners

by Xeni Jardin

“A chance encounter proves fateful for 2 robots mining on a desolate planet.”

On Reddit, filmmaker Jack Anderson explains that the making of his film involved a “$0 budget but thousands of hours of love and about a YEAR of rendering.”

And all that rendering shows. "Animated as if by a team of hundreds, remarkably, this film was made by Jack Anderson while an undergraduate at Chapman University.”

unnamed (3)unnamed (2)unnamed (1)unnamedunnamed [Link]

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01 Sep 02:14

BBC TV host is very excited about this Blue Whale that just showed up

by Xeni Jardin
Bewarethewumpus

With Steve Irwin dead, we need men and women like this to make people care about the amazing animals we have. Krill are so amazing!

yXBrn7

“I can see it now! The largest ever known to have lived on our planet, larger than any of the dinosaurs, a creature we hunted so much that 99% of its numbers disappeared is right here, right now, live!”

Watch a very enthusiastic Steve Backshall, best known for outdoors/wilderness TV specials on BBC, react to the surprise appearance of a blue whale during a live shot.

It gets even more intense and fantastic when he realizes there's krill in the water. Wait for the part where he talks about the krill.

I love his excitement about nature.

[Thanks, Andrea James!]

Blue Whale size compared to that of a human. [Wikipedia]


Blue Whale size compared to that of a human. [Wikipedia]

 Blue Whale lifting its tail fluke. "Mike" Michael L. Baird.


Blue Whale lifting its tail fluke. "Mike" Michael L. Baird, via Wikipedia.

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31 Aug 23:51

(photo via TheNitroBlade)



(photo via TheNitroBlade)

31 Aug 22:33

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - A Bad Ad Hoc Theory

by admin@smbc-comics.com

Hovertext: Parsimony is for wimps.


New comic!
Today's News:

 Yes indeed! And we've already sold half the tickets for BAHFest East, so please buy soon to lock a spot!

31 Aug 20:04

How to Draw Mickey Mouse in Four Easy Steps

by Brad
752
31 Aug 19:51

Man arrested for single Viagra pill sues Brooklyn police officer for humilation

by Mark Frauenfelder

Viagra is not a controlled substance but that didn't stop Brooklyn police offficer David Esparragoza from arresting Earl McLeod, 33, for possession of a single Viagra pill.

McLeod’s lawyer, Nicholas Mindicino, told the Daily News that the entire encounter appeared to be illegal — that there was no basis for the car stop, and there was no basis for the search, not to mention the bogus charge.

The passengers in the vehicle were not arrested.

“A police officer’s job is to arrest people who commit crimes, and they can’t do their job if they don’t know what is a crime and what is not,” Mindicino said.

“It’s absolutely a case of police officer incompetence.”

McLeod went to Brooklyn Criminal Court to appeal and the charges were dropped. He is suing “emotional trauma, embarrassment, and humiliation.”

The NYPD declined to comment.

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31 Aug 14:34

Keytarist Does Amazing Things To Sonic's Green Hill Zone Music 

by Mike Fahey

Keytarist Does Amazing Things To Sonic's Green Hill Zone Music 

The flashing colored lights. The energy. The majesty of the keytar. Rush Coil’s Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill keytar performance is my new inspirational jam.

I’m not being facetious. I am not poking fun. I’ve watched this video a dozen times since former co-conspirator Owen Good posted the video on Polygon yesterday, and it keeps getting better every time I watch it.

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I’ve wanted a keytar for forever. I play a little guitar and a little piano, though neither with anything near professional proficiency. I’m pretty sure it’s because the guitar does not have keys and the piano doesn’t let me strap it across my chest. Combine the two and I would attack that instrument with as much enthusiasm and joy as Rush Coil here.

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30 Aug 21:11

Drawing Breasts Isn't Easy

by Mike Fahey

Drawing Breasts Isn't Easy

Properly rendering breasts for a video game is a difficult task, but then so is simply drawing them. Luckily, as this short from animator Dylan Simpson demonstrates, an easily accessible reference point is just a click away.

When I was a teenager I was really into drawing—I wanted to be a comic book artist—but my weak point was the female form. I could do hips. I could do butts. I was once complemented by a prominent comic artist on my depiction of the female underarm. But breasts? Breasts eluded me. The closest I came to perfecting them was in a class featuring a live nude female model, but even then the pastel-sketched results wound up humorously unbalanced.

So I feel for the young artist in the video below. I really do.

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Sadly we had no Smoogle image search back in my day, and I doubt it would have helped. My solution was to never draw female figures again. Eventually I gave up on humans altogether and just drew robot wolves. It was the late ‘80s. Robot wolves were cool.

To contact the author of this post, write to fahey@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter@bunnyspatial.

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30 Aug 15:59

Trouser snake

http://oglaf.com/trousersnake/

29 Aug 21:35

Baltimore defense lawyers to review nearly 2,000 cases involving stingrays

by Nathan Mattise

This week, USA Today's investigative team shined a light on the Baltimore police department and their use of stingrays. The paper found cops deployed the cell phone trackers in crimes as minor as harassing phone calls, and the authorities would often conceal the results of that surveillance from suspects and lawyers despite the fact that Maryland law "generally requires that electronic surveillance be disclosed in court," according to the paper.

Evidently, the story found the right eyeballs. USA Today now reports that defense lawyers in Baltimore have pledged to examine nearly 2,000 cases involving police using stingrays. The lawyers plan to use their findings to approach judges and for “a large number” of criminal convictions to be overturned, the paper writes.

“This is a crisis, and to me it needs to be addressed very quickly,” Baltimore’s deputy public defender, Natalie Finegar, told USA Today. “No stone is going to be left unturned at this point.”

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

29 Aug 04:01

Court: We Can’t Rule on NSA Bulk Data Collection Because We Don’t Know Whose Data Was Collected

by Jenna McLaughlin

On Friday, an appeals court overturned a U.S. District Court decision last May that had declared that the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records was beyond the authorization of the law. The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit kicked the matter back to the lower court for additional deliberation.

The decision did not declare the NSA’s program, which was revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, to have been legal or constitutional. Rather, it focused on a technicality: a majority opinion that the plaintiffs in the case could not actually prove that the metadata program swept up their own phone records. Therefore, the plaintiffs, the court declared, did not have standing to sue.

“Plaintiffs claim to suffer injury from government collection of records from their telecommunications provider relating to their calls. But plaintiffs are subscribers of Verizon Wireless, not of Verizon Business Network Services, Inc. — the sole provider that the government has acknowledged targeting for bulk collection,” wrote Judge Stephen F. Williams.

“Today’s ruling is merely a procedural decision,” said Alexander Abdo, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who argued against the program at the U.S. District Court. “Only one appeals court has weighed in on the merits of the program, and it ruled the government’s collection of Americans’ call records was not only unlawful but ‘unprecedented and unwarranted.’”

Despite Friday’s decision, the bulk collection program will end later this year in accordance with the USA Freedom Act, passed by Congress in June.

The NSA previously argued that its massive collection of telephony metadata was legal because the records met the legal standard of being “relevant to an authorized investigation.”

In the May decision, Judge Gerald E. Lynch described the government’s interpretation of the word “relevant” as “extremely generous” and “unprecedented and unwarranted,” saying that the program had serious constitutional concerns and was ultimately illegal. However, the court did not order the program’s closure, because Congress was due to debate the USA Freedom Act within a month’s time.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court granted the NSA an extension through November to shutter the program, a provision that was included in the USA Freedom Act. After that the NSA will no longer be able to hoover up phone metadata without a warrant.

Therefore, the overturned ruling declaring the program illegal doesn’t have much practical effect.

But according to some civil liberties experts, it does say a lot about the power of the NSA to avoid scrutiny. Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, called the ruling “a potent illustration of how excessive secrecy and stringent standing requirements effectively immunize intelligence programs from meaningful, adversarial constitutional review.”

Dorsey & Witney lawyer Robert Cattanach, a former trial attorney for the Department of Justice, points out that it will be practically impossible to force the NSA to disclose whether or not it did sweep up the plaintiff’s data. “The Government is almost certain to deny any access to the specifics of a classified program through discovery, creating the likelihood of a standoff between the plaintiffs and the government, with the court left to rule based on conjecture about what really happened,” he wrote in a statement sent to The Intercept.

Circuit Court Judge Janice Rogers Brown summarized the problem facing the court: “Excessive secrecy limits needed criticism and debate. Effective secrecy ensures the perpetuation of our institutions.”

So the decision did not necessarily indicate the NSA won, as media outlets today were quick to proclaim. It simply challenged a specific assertion, that the plaintiffs’ own metadata was collected — a matter of fact that will likely never be known for sure.

The post Court: We Can’t Rule on NSA Bulk Data Collection Because We Don’t Know Whose Data Was Collected appeared first on The Intercept.

28 Aug 09:18

VideoGameDunkey on Ocarina of Time

by Don
Bewarethewumpus

And if you haven't played it, I'ma come over there and punch you in da balls.

Amen.

70a

VideoGameDunkey explains what made The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is one of the most celebrated works in video game history.

28 Aug 03:40

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

by Luke Plunkett

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

When a company like Sony or Nintendo or Microsoft designs a console (or handheld), they have a few things to worry about, like keeping prices as low as possible while ensuring everything still works. But what if that wasn’t an obstacle for games hardware? What if they could be as beautiful as any other piece of hand-crafted art, price be damned?

That’s where Love Hulten comes in. The Swedish designer and craftsman (who we’ve actually featured here before) specialises in exquisite, one-of-a-kind pieces of electronics:

Hultén carefully selects the finest local materials to provide strength and durability. The unique collectible objects breathe through time, rather than get suffocated by it. Specializing in creating one-of-a-kind exclusive items, Hulten offers the buyer a genuine and personal experience.

Just look at this stuff. It’s gorgeous. This little handheld, for example, is made from solid American walnut, wrapped around a Raspberry Pi A+ that’s running an emulator. You can even adjust the tension of the friction hinge.

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The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

Here are some more examples of Hulten’s work:

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

The Most Beautiful Consoles Are Made By Hand

(via claw marks in the frozen peas)

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28 Aug 03:38

Curiosity Killed The Solid Snake

by Luke Plunkett

Everyone: “Hey, Snake, why do you ask so many questions?”

Snake: “QUESTIONS?”

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27 Aug 18:18

Progressives Demand Answers From Clinton on Golden Parachutes for Wall Streeters-Turned-Government Officials

by Jon Schwarz

A coalition of eight progressive organizations, using material previously published at The Intercept, have challenged Hillary Clinton to disavow the use of “golden parachute” bonuses for former Wall Street executives who enter government service.

In a letter to the Clinton campaign delivered today, the organizations, including Rootstrikers, Democracy for America, CREDO and MoveOn.org Political Action, refer to two top aides to Clinton when she served as secretary of state, Thomas Nides and Robert Hormats. As The Intercept reported in July, Nides and Hormats received millions of dollars in golden parachute payments from their respective ex-employers, investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, after becoming Clinton’s deputies.

Goldman Sachs paid out Hormats’ unvested restricted stock units, valued between $250,000 and $500,000. Morgan Stanley’s accelerated payout for Nides of restricted stock units was worth between $5 million and $25 million. Deferred compensation awards like these would have been forfeited, had the executives left their jobs for somewhere other than the government.

Bonuses are typically granted to executives who stay with a company rather than leave it. “Awarding outsized bonuses and gifts of equity to Wall Street executives who temporarily leave to go into public service is either a breach of a public corporation’s fiduciary duty to its stockholders, or a down payment on future services rendered,” the progressive groups write to Clinton. They describe the practice as “a barely legal, backdoor form of bribery.”

In the letter, the groups ask Clinton if she supports the practice of golden parachute bonuses from the financial sector, and if she would allow officials in her administration to receive them.

The “Financial Services Conflict of Interest Act,” introduced by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., would ban Wall Street golden parachute payments. The bill would also extend the lobbying “cooling-off” period for officials rotating out of government from one to two years, and force policymakers to recuse themselves from decisions that would benefit their former employers.

“Golden parachutes have become so common and corrosive to the public trust that it has become clear the next president should prohibit executive branch employees from receiving them altogether,” the letter concludes. It was also signed by American Family Voices, the Center for Popular Democracy, Friends of the Earth and The Other 98%.

Last month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., publicly challenged presidential candidates to support the Baldwin/Cummings legislation. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley, two Democratic hopefuls, have already endorsed it; Sanders is a co-sponsor of the bill. But the Clinton campaign has yet to make their position clear, prompting the escalation by these progressive groups.

“Americans are sick and tired of the Wall-Street-to-Washington revolving door, and are looking for a presidential candidate who will take concrete steps to fight it,” said Kurt Walters, campaign manager for Rootstrikers, in a statement. He added that hundreds of thousands of members of the undersigned organizations have signed petitions in support of the Baldwin/Cummings bill.

Nides, a six-figure bundler in Clinton’s former and current presidential campaigns, returned right back to Morgan Stanley after Clinton left the State Department. He has been touted for a potential chief of staff position in a Clinton White House. Hormats has been part of a small group of economic advisers to Clinton during her 2016 presidential run.

“It’s hard to imagine Democrats’ 2016 nominee will be truly tough on Wall Street banks that break the law,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of Democracy for America, “if they won’t commit to banning their advisers from receiving legalized bribes from those same banks.”

The post Progressives Demand Answers From Clinton on Golden Parachutes for Wall Streeters-Turned-Government Officials appeared first on The Intercept.

26 Aug 22:56

When Odds Are Against You, Remember This

by Brad
Ffe
26 Aug 19:30

Amazon Launches App Store That Claims To Show Other Actually Free Apps

by Ashlee Kieler

Screen Shot 2015-08-26 at 1.16.10 PMIn a relatively novel idea, Amazon has launched a new store called Amazon Underground that claims to provide Android users with a list of top apps that are actually free – no hidden in-app purchases here.

The e-commerce giant announced the new venture today in a letter [PDF] to consumers, noting that the store offers “over ten thousand dollars in apps, games and in-app items that are actually free.”

Amazon's letter announcing Underground. [Click to enlarge]

Amazon’s letter announcing Underground. [Click to enlarge]

The company says the store is a partnership with thousands of developers and aims to ensure that customers aren’t purchasing apps and games that are marked free, but turn out not to be.

“They use in-app payments to charge you for special items or to unlock features or levels,” the company says of apps available elsewhere.

Underground will be different, the company claims.

“You will find 100% free versions of popular premium titles,” the letter states. “We’ve made this possible by working out a new business model with app and game developers.”

That model works by Amazon paying developers a certain amount per-minute played in exchange for them waiving their normal in-app fees.

“To be clear, we’re the ones picking up those per minute charges so for you it’s simply free,” the company says. “Just look for apps and games marked with an ‘Actually Free’ banner.”

Amazon says that while you might normally go to Google Play to download such an app, it’s not possible with Underground, thanks to Google’s rules against allowing an app that offers apps or games to be included in its store.

Instead, users have to download Underground directly from Amazon.com, which isn’t as easy as it might seem, especially if you don’t have a Fire phone. The Verge points out that the process entails changing security settings and installing an .apk to access content that is largely available in the Google Play Store already.

26 Aug 17:39

What Are Frogs?

by Ari Spool
92d

Today, your fortune cookie reads:

“think deeply about difficult questions.”

26 Aug 14:42

110-year-old message in a bottle gets returned to sender

by David Pescovitz
A few months back, Marianne Winkler found a bottle on a German beach with a message inside requesting its return to the Marine Biological Association (MBA) that had dropped more than 1,000 bottles into the North Sea as part of a study of currents. Thing is, that experiment took place more than a century ago. From National Geographic:

screenshot

"We haven't had [a bottle] returned in living memory," says Guy Baker, an MBA spokesperson.

(Former MBA president and lead researcher on the bottle study George Parker) Bidder got about half of his messages back, says Baker. And the longest it took for one of his bottles to come home—before this current one—was about four years....

Bidder's bottle has also been submitted to the Guinness World Records for consideration as the oldest message in a bottle ever recovered. The current record-holder is a 99-year-old bottle discovered in a fishing net off the Shetland Islands in 2013.

"Century-Old Message in a Bottle Returned to Sender"

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