Cowboy Who?

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Of course, they can't help hating sports, which is why they also hate themselves, which they also can't help.

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Huh. The amulet of fulfillment isn't doing anything. Is it busted?

When all you have is a hammer, everything is sleep deprivation.

Drones could soon be key to keeping New Yorkers safe from crumbling architecture. Members of the New York City Council have proposed legislation that would require drone inspections within 48 hours of a complaint or confirmed violation. A robotic vehicle (not the Mavic 2 Pro pictured) would use infrared and a pair of conventional cameras to both look for the telltale temperature changes of cracks and inspect roof conditions. The intended drones would cost $2,500 each, but the proposal would reduce costs by offloading the inspections to private companies that would charge building owners.

The drone inspections could alleviate staff shortages at NYC's building department while saving money. More importantly, they could save lives. The council proposal comes days after falling debris from a fined building killed architect Erica Tishman while she was walking below. Ideally, this would have helped pinpoint and fix the problem.

There's one problem: right now, the 1948-era airspace laws would forbid drones. The city would have to relax those laws for this concept to move forward. If that happens, though, drones might soon be a regular part of NYC's landscape.

Source: NY1

Tonight's comic is doing something special for the holidays. 😴💤

It's a sad week if you've ever posted on a social network or an internet forum. Randy Suess, the creator of the software for first online public bulletin board, died on December 10th at the age of 74. He and Ward Christensen built the Computer Bulletin Board System (CBBS) in 1978 to give users a central place to float ideas, post notices and otherwise coordinate without meeting in person. Of course, it wasn't nearly as sophisticated as the giant internet services you see today -- CBBS revolved around a customized personal computer that required a dial-up modem to access.

For the next couple of decades, these dial-up bulletin boards (BBSes for short) were the first taste of the online world for many people. They quickly grew to cover many of the features you expect from the modern internet, such as live chat, multiplayer games and, of course, social posts. It was just cruder -- many techies have memories of taking all night to download a new game, or having to compete with parents for the phone line.

The internet has long since taken over the roles BBSes served, and the results haven't entirely been positive. Just ask anyone who has waded into the muck of hostile comments on social networks and video sites. However, it's safe to say that online communication wouldn't have gotten off the ground when it did without Suess' work. The impact of his work will likely be felt for a long, long time to come.

Source: New York Times

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I'm convinced you could exactly tune the population growth rate via debt.

A curated list to help you do your job better.

The new documentary film, Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project, uncovers the story of an enigmatic African American woman in Philadelphia and her relentless drive to critically observe and obsessively preserve TV news media. The film provides an interesting historical survey of the late-20th and early-21st centuries while it explores the life of its reclusive protagonist and raises questions about collection, compulsion, media memory, and the importance of independent “keepers.” Recorder will screen this Thursday and Sunday at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (December 19 and 22), and soon at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (January 3-5). 

Marion Metelits was a librarian in the late 1950s when she was first drawn to social activism. She became so heavily involved in left-wing politics that she was fired from her job, and for a time was being groomed for leadership in the Communist Party. Marion later became a producer and panelist on Input, a local, weekly television program for people with differing viewpoints to discuss topical issues. She and her wealthy, white co-host John Stokes Jr. shared views on communication and community, and were soon inseparable. The two were married and lived together for many decades, eventually in seclusion from the rest of the world. 

In the mid-1970s, Marion bought some of the earliest consumer VCRs and began to tape all manner of television programming. She became consumed with finding nuanced contradictions in TV news coverage, and the Stokes’ posh Rittenhouse Square apartment in Philadelphia quickly morphed into a secret, makeshift media analysis control center. With an activist’s interest in how media shapes perception and a librarian’s passion for collecting and cataloguing culture, Marion began recording more and more — eventually employing multiple TVs and VCRs running simultaneously and continuously throughout the day. Marion captured local and national coverage of everything from the Iran hostage crisis to the events of September 11, 2001. Along the way, she observed the shifting media landscape as it slid into wall-to-wall, 24-hour news coverage. When she died in 2012 (with live coverage of the Sandy Hook massacre being recorded), she left behind more than 70,000 home-recorded videotapes.

Recorder is directed by Matt Wolf, whose previous documentaries have chronicled such outliers as musician Arthur Russell (Wild Combination), artist and writer Joe Brainard (I Remember), and gay rights activist Bayard Rustin (Bayard and Me). Wolf does a good job here of balancing the story of Stokes’ unusual life with the larger cultural ideas held within her video collection. He weaves together interviews with the Stokes’ family and domestic staff with archival footage of Marion and John from their TV appearances, and a range of selections culled from her TV tapes. Though it gets close, Recorder stops short of over-simple conclusions, allowing audiences to complete the wonder-work. Was she an information revolutionary, or a mad woman? Was she a thorough archivist or a compulsive hoarder? Was she completely removed from society in that curtains-drawn apartment, or was she more in touch with the evolution of our culture than anyone? And, is this massive cache of media material important or useless trash?

I find this film and the questions it raises fascinating and extremely relevant in 2019, as we’ve just begun to wrestle with the fast, fractured, continuously flowing, and dangerously unreliable nature of internet media. These glimpses of Stokes’ recordings reveal something of a prehistory of our current muddle of news, entertainment, commerce, and personal media. Recorder also acknowledges one woman’s noble act of refusal to let the flow of ephemeral media go unquestioned. If we are, in the future, able to grow through reference, research, and reflection, then we’ll owe everything to the world’s critical thinkers, driven seekers, and obsessive keepers.  

“Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project” screens at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Dec. 19 and Dec. 22, and at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth January 3-5.

The post ‘Recorder’ Reveals a Unique Tale of Personal Media Archeology appeared first on Glasstire.

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Well, I picked a weird day to post this.

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The elves have thrown off their shackles.

Reuters has released a new 45-minute online course designed to help give journalists the tools they need to spot and avoid sharing manipulated pictures, videos and audio clips. While deepfakes are obviously a major component of the material, there's also advice on how to approach real media that's been co-opted so that it presents an entirely different story than it did originally. Even if you're not a journalist, you can check out the course for free.

According to Axios, Facebook is spending "six figures" to help Reuters make the course available internationally as part of the Facebook Journalism Project. The material is currently available in English, French, Spanish and Arabic, with the news agency planning to translate into at least 12 more languages, including German and Japanese, down the road. Moving into 2020, the two will also co-host events and panels related to the topic.

While Facebook doesn't have the best track record when it dealing with deepfakes, it has been openly considering alternate approaches. In September, the social media giant partnered with several other companies and universities to create an initiative called the Deepfake Detection Challenge (DFDC). Facebook said it would spend more than $10 million as part of the project to create videos researchers could use to test tools they create to spot manipulated videos. However, it seems the company is aware it still needs to do more to address the problem.

"We need to work across industries to better identify and address manipulated media," said Julia Bain, who works on integrity partnerships at Facebook. "Partnering with Reuters to launch this free e-learning course is an important step to help journalists spot this type of content so we can stop the spread of misinformation online."

Via: Axios

Source: Reuters (1), Reuters (2)

NBCUniversal's Peacock service might be free for some viewers, but the network also appears willing to charge money for the ad-averse. The Information tipsters claim that NBC is mulling a $10 ad-free tier as well as a $5 plan with limited ads. That would provide more flexibility and lower prices than Hulu, which has no free tier and starts at $6 per month for limited ads. Of course, Hulu isn't just limited to one broadcaster's content -- you're paying more to get more.

NBC hasn't confirmed the potential new pricing, although you won't have long to find out when it's expected to detail Peacock's cost on January 16th.

The variable tiers would make sense. A free option (even if it's tied to cable service) may be needed to lure customers either wary of a single-network service or suffering from subscription fatigue. Simultaneously, there will likely be customers who insist on an ad-free experience and are willing to pay for the privilege. This three-pronged approach could give Peacock the widest-possible audience, even if its success is still far from guaranteed.

Via: Jessica Toonkel (Twitter)

Source: The Information

For years it was the stuff of legend -- a games console that incorporated both a CD drive and SNES cartridge slot made with the official backing of PlayStation and Nintendo? But back in 2015 we saw the magical prototype for ourselves and even had a play with it. Now, after years of touring the world to show off the system to classic gaming fans, the owner of what is believed to be the only remaining Nintendo PlayStation system is putting the console up for sale.

The console ended up in the hands of Terry Diebold after he discovered it among a bunch of items he'd won in an online bankruptcy auction (for which he paid the ridiculously low price of $75), but it wasn't until his son Dan happened upon a Reddit thread about the system that he realized just how important the console was. The product of a not-quite partnership between Nintendo and Sony back in the early '90s, some argue that the Nintendo PlayStation inadvertently led to the creation of Sony's own PlayStation, which of course has had a phenomenal impact on gaming itself.

For years, the Diebolds have toured the system around the globe, which, as you can imagine, doesn't come cheap. Speaking to Kotaku, Terry says that he's made "nothing" by taking the console on the road, and that continuing to do so is costing money he can't afford to lose. As such, the pair have decided to part with the console -- and it looks like there's going to be mega bucks involved, with the Diebolds already turning down $1.2 million from someone in Norway.

The console will be sold in an online auction run by Heritage Auctions, which has in the past sold gaming collectables for eye-watering prices -- a sealed copy of the original Mega Man made a whopping $75,000 earlier this year, for example. The sale will begin on February 27th, although no-one's really sure how much the legendary console will go for. Valarie McLeckie, Heritage's director of video games said that while it will definitely sell, the market will determine its value. "In the case of this particular item, since it's never been sold at public auction before, there's really no way to tell," she said. Chances are it'll be a bit out of your budget, though.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Heritage Auctions

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The key to success in marriage is to make each other so weird that nobody else would accept you.

While many are focused on Facebook's unwillingness to curb false political ads, there appears to be another misinformation campaign going unchecked. The Guardian and GLAAD have noted that personal injury law firms continue to run Facebook ads making false claims about the risks of Truvada, a drug meant to reduce the likelihood of HIV transmission. Some float the specters of bone loss and kidney damage despite evidence that the risks of either are "not clinically significant," according to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

GLAAD said it contacted Facebook's public policy team and reached out to five fact-checking agencies, but the social network answered by pointing to a public ad policy page explaining why ads can be removed. In response, GLAAD posted an open letter asking Facebook to remove the ads, with support coming from 50 organizations, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Senator Elizabeth Warren. The advocacy group is buying ads on Facebook to promote the letter among the LGBTQ+ community.

We've asked Facebook for comment.

The ads are likely just attempts to spur lawsuits against Truvada's manufacturer, Gilead. However, there's a concern that they could do serious harm by discouraging the use of preventative drugs and spreading HIV. They also illustrate Facebook's mixed track record in supporting LGBTQ+ people. While Facebook has become more inclusive with changes to its real name policy and support for custom gender identities, it has also drawn fire for inadvertently blocking LGBTQ+ ads and claims that it's lax on removing homophobic material. Simply put, the ads questioning Truvada are eroding an already fragile sense of trust.

Source: The Guardian, GLAAD

Tonight's comic knows what an actual joke is.