firehose

Lucas123 writes In what could presage an era of data from wearables being used in civil and criminal litigation cases, a Canadian attorney is using data collected by a Fitbit activity tracking wrist band to prove his client is not scamming an insurance company. The defendant's attorney normalized the data using an analytics platform that compares activity data with other wearables, offering a way to benchmark his client's health against a larger group of wearable owners. Legal and privacy experts say it's only a matter of time before wearable data will be used in criminal cases, as well, and the vendors will have little choice but to hand it over. "I do think that's coming down the pike. It's just a matter of time," said Neda Shakoori, an eDiscovery expert with the law firm of McManis Faulkner. Health privacy laws, such as HIPAA, don't cover wearables and those companies can be subpoenaed — just as Google and Microsoft have been for years.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

HughPickens.com writes Frédéric Filloux reports at Monday Note that two groups of French publishers, the GESTE and the French Internet Advertising Bureau, are considering a lawsuit against AdBlockPlus creator Eyeo GmbH on grounds that it represents a major economic threat to their business. According to LesEchos.fr, EYEO, which publishes Adblock Plus, has developed a business model where they offer not to block publishers' advertisements for remuneration as long as the ads are judged non-intrusive (Google Translate, Original here). "Several criteria must be met as well: advertisements must be identified as such, be static and therefore not contain animation, no sound, and should not interfere with the content. A position that some media have likened to extortion." According to Filloux the legal action misses the point. By downloading AdBlock Plus (ABP) on a massive scale, users are voting with their mice against the growing invasiveness of digital advertising. Therefore, suing Eyeo, the company that maintains ABP, is like using Aspirin to fight cancer. A different approach is required but very few seem ready to face that fact. "We must admit that Eyeo GmbH is filling a vacuum created by the incompetence and sloppiness of the advertising community's, namely creative agencies, media buyers and organizations that are supposed to coordinate the whole ecosystem," says Filloux. Even Google has begun to realize that the explosion of questionable advertising formats has become a problem and the proof is Google's recent Contributor program that proposes ad-free navigation in exchange for a fee ranging from $1 to $3 per month. "The growing rejection of advertising AdBlock Plus is built upon is indeed a threat to the ecosystem and it needs to be addressed decisively. For example, by bringing at the same table publishers and advertisers to meet and design ways to clean up the ad mess. But the entity and leaders who can do the job have yet to be found."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Government surplus. Only $8,000 on eBay. Note that this device has been analyzed before.

Under pressure to get a publishing giant into the iconic tower, the site's developers may have sacrificed a core part of its green plans.

Link (thanks, Matt!)

Another week has dawned, and with it comes a new mashup album to help while away those long, lonely hours of bleary-eyed, post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas ennui. An enterprising DJ identified only as Aesop Waits has made available through Bandcamp a 12-track compilation entitled Tom Shall Pass, which melds the reference-heavy rhymes of esoteric alternative rapper Aesop Rock (complete with shout outs to R. Crumb and the Garbage Pail Kids) with the gnarled, growly music of bohemian blues-jazz-folk poet Tom Waits. In hindsight, the shotgun wedding of Waits and Rock is not as unexpected as it may initially appear. These two men, though born 27 years apart and on opposite coasts, are brothers of a common fraternity of acceptably hip, just-outside-the-mainstream artists beloved by those who pride themselves on listening to music which is quirky without being cute and experimental without being unlistenable. The only possible hitch in splicing the DNA of ...

Dr. Carsten Plischke, a veterinarian in Enger, Germany used leftover bricks of his son’s LEGO set to fashion a temporary “wheelchair” for a pet tortoise named Blade whose legs were weakened due to a growth disorder. The “wheelchair” was then placed onto Blade’s belly to allow him to scoot around while giving the support he needs as his legs grow stronger. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Dr. Pliscke lamented about the lack of options available to animals.

For people there are walkers, rollators or prostheses but for animals there are no companies that produce something like that. The size variation of animals means they can’t establish uniform products. So you have to come up with creative solutions; every animal needs its own treatment.

images via Daily Mail

via Daily Mail, Orange, My Modern Met

The U.S.S. Kailua has been discovered off the coast of Hawaii in 2,000 feet of water. The intact "ghost ship," which sank in 1946 after being used as torpedo practice, is still upright, with its solitary mast still standing and the ship's wheel still in place. From 1923 to the time it sunk, the ship laid countless miles of submarine cable in the Pacific.

Read more...

The state hopes to save its rapidly disappearing coastline with a 50-year, $50 billion plan based on science that’s never been tested and money it doesn’t have. What could go wrong?

The Bay Area Book Festival is a new, two-day literary event that will bring 150 authors from around the world to Berkeley, California on June 6 and 7, 2015. The festival will encompass a half square mile of downtown Berkeley, and will include 100 exhibitors, a mini film and literature festival, children’s arena, and cooking stage. Festival organizers are raising funds for the event on Indiegogo.

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Mark Hamill is set to reprise one of his most iconic roles, and I'm not talking about Luke Skywalker. Hamill will return to the role of the Trickster, the maniacal supervillain he played on the original 1990 Flash TV series, on the CW's new Flash show. That's awesome.

Read more...

Under the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951, secrecy orders may be imposed by an executive branch agency when the disclosure of a patent application is deemed detrimental to national security. This year saw 5,520 invention secrecy orders, the most since 1994.

Read more...

micdotcom:

If we talked about theft like we talk about rape, here’s how absurd it would sound

It’s hard to imagine asking victims of violent crimes what they could have done to prevent what happened to them.

But this is all too often the reality for rape victims. | Follow micdotcom 

I got this powerful letter from a former Gamergater. Please RT, it’s touching and honest. http://t.co/CjsXBrEcAv pic.twitter.com/jjg7NPJkgM

— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 5, 2014

Earlier this week game developer Brianna Wu posted a letter of apology to her Tumblr that was sent to her by a former Gamergater. Wu, who was doxxed and forced out of her home by online harassers in October and who is setting up a legal defense fund for women targeted by the hate group, has received some especially contemptible harassment recently following a personal loss; in light of all that, a note of apology from a former supporter of Gamergate feels especially poignant. Wu notes that the following has “been lightly edited for clarity and anonymity.”

Brianna,

Just wanted to say that I have finally broken, and it’s thanks to you, or rather, the treatment you have received since day one.

I tried to tell myself that it was all about the “Gamers are Dead,” articles, and the forums, and for me it was, always. I don’t even go online to game so never even engage with people there. But I was blind, some would say willfully ignorant about it all.

I told myself over and over that the abuse being received by women such as yourself was not real and put it out of my mind as I suspect many others have. I distanced myself from any abuse I did see and wrote them off as fakes, but it isn’t true is it? It’s more than the majority. I was wrong all along. I never abused, or engaged you or others, I signal boosted, supported campaigns, trying to stay away from the ignorance.

Whenever a confident woman comes along to have her say in any way she is shouted down and harassed by men like me. Men who have it so easy. We are blind to the faults of society and its focus on men. We don’t like to be challenged, but we should get used to it because I have some news for you: You are winning.

You are winning and these are the death throws of a petulant, selfish culture [...] it is time for me to stand down from my pedestal and listen to women, to let them steer culture and not resist the betterment and balance they will bring.

The letter (which is long, but absolutely worth reading in its entirety) ends with a promise from the sender to commit themselves to feminism:

I’m sorry for the length, but I just wanted to let you know there are people out there who you will ultimately beat and win over with your sheer integrity. You beat me, and I’m so glad. I am leaving GG so I will remain anonymous as I fear these people getting to me somehow but if you wish to talk further please do so. I will listen, and would appreciate any advice on going further to become the person I should have been as I’m quite ashamed of supporting what was an ugly, chaotic mess.

I’ve rejected feminism from it’s very starting point and I’ve done nothing but stand in the way of people. If I can help let me know.

Of course, we all know how unreformed Gleebergloopers will likely react to the letter:

@steampunkkanye IDGAF.

— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 5, 2014

It almost goes without saying that one Gamergater’s gracious apology is fairly insignificant in light of all the ongoing harassment. But change is happening, albeit infinitessimally, and any chance to stop and take stock of that progress is important. Thanks to Wu for sharing.

(Via Bustle)

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djempirical

10 years ago today.

Friday, December 10, 2004 Posted: 12:54 AM EST (0554 GMT)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (CNN) -- A 25-year-old man stormed the stage at a heavy-metal rock concert Wednesday night, shooting and killing Pantera founder and Damageplan guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott and three others before a police officer shot and killed him, Columbus police said.

On Thursday, police identified the suspect as Nathan Gale of nearby Marysville. A spokesman said police had no information about a motive or possible link to the band.

"Right now we don't see any connection at all, but that could change," Columbus police Sgt. Brent Mull said. "Unless he left a note or there's something else, we may never know the motive."

At least two people also were wounded in the attack, which occurred shortly after Damageplan began its performance at the Alrosa Villa nightclub on Columbus' north side.

James Niggemeyer of the Columbus police was nearby and responded to a call about the shooting. He slipped in a back door, and someone directed him to the stage, Mull said.

"We got the call about 10:18, and by 10:20 he was in there," Mull said, adding that "it was probably less than a minute before he engaged" the suspect, who was holding a hostage.

"The officer was able to strategically gun this guy down before he was able to kill his hostage," Mull said. "It appeared he was about to kill his hostage before this officer put an end to it."

Mull said the hostage was unharmed and that Niggemeyer's action saved lives.

"The officer ran in without any backup ... obviously put himself at risk," he said. "The community has a real hero here."

Abbott, 38, and his brother, Vinnie Paul Abbott, 40, formed Damageplan after the breakup of Pantera -- a group they formed in the 1980s. Their father is Jerry Abbott, a country and western songwriter and producer. (Dimebag profile)

Pantera's third release, "Far Beyond Driven," debuted at No. 1 in 1994. The band was nominated for Grammys in 1995 and 2001.

The band dissolved at the end of a tour last year -- amid much speculation on fan Web sites that the split was not amicable. The two brothers, however, played down any bitterness during an April 1 interview with CNN.

"It just kind of got narrow-minded, and we just wanted to bust it open a little bit more and just broaden it up, go for the Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors instead of the one, you know what I mean?" Darrell Abbott said.

Vinnie Paul Abbott said: "We had 13 years of really, really good success. And basically the singer wanted to move on, do some other things and really lost his focus."

At least 1 audience member among deaths

At least one of those killed Wednesday night -- Nathan Bray, 23 -- was a member of the audience. Mull identified another deceased victim as Erin Halk, 29, although it was unclear if he was a concertgoer or an employee.

Mull did not identify the remaining fatality. Abbott was the only band member confirmed dead "at this point," he said.

One of the wounded is in critical condition, the other hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. Two others were hurt and treated at the scene, although the nature of their injuries was unclear.

Mull said homicide detectives are checking possible amateur video shot inside the club during the shooting but said they weren't sure if the footage would be useful.

Police roped off a huge area of the nightclub's parking lot as 60 detectives questioned hundreds of witnesses. Police brought in buses to keep the witnesses warm as they waited.

Witnesses described the gunman as a heavyset man, wearing a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey jersey.

Calvin Bota said he saw the shooting from the mosh pit in front of the stage shortly after the band began playing.

"Somebody came -- I don't know where they came from, out of the audience or whatnot -- but they come onto [the] stage and ... he shot the guitarist at first, fired a couple of other shots and then he hid behind the stage a little bit," Bota told CNN affiliate WSYX.

"Everybody started scattering, you know, there's mayhem everywhere. And then a police officer came into the building, you know, came in professional with his gun raised, and then he proceeded to shoot the guy."

Mull said Columbus police have responded to previous incidents at the club, including several he characterized as minor as well as a shooting in the parking lot. He said he was unaware of the club's security practices, except that it had no surveillance camera or metal detector.

"They are in charge of their own security inside," he said. "There are times they hire off-duty Columbus police for parking lot security -- we are prohibited by law from working inside a liquor establishment -- but last night there were none."

Original Source

Original Source

Liz Seccuro is a speaker, victims' advocate and writer.

The victim of a UVA gang rape 30 years ago — also at Phi Kappa Psi — on why no one believed her then. And why she, too, was afraid to name her attackers

Like many Americans, I read the gruesome account of a gang rape at the University of Virginia’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house, as told by reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely in a recent issue of Rolling Stone. Unlike most people who read the article, I was not shocked by it; I was gang-raped at Phi Kappa Psi at UVA in 1984. My story was a small part of the article, for which I spent hours speaking with Erdely from July through November. I was encouraged that my story — a very public one in the last eight years — would be told again in order to give context to the eerily similar rape of Jackie, the student victim in Erdely’s story.

Days of public outrage have trickled into weeks, with new firestorms erupting almost daily to the fallout from the article. On Monday, UVA president Teresa Sullivan chose an undisclosed location — to which reporters were not invited — from which to call on “the wisdom and research of our faculty members, the creativity and imaginations of our students, and the passion and concern of our alumni to find real solutions.” But this week, various media outlets began asking if maybe, just maybe, the whole horrifying story in Rolling Stone is a giant hoax.

Over 30 years ago, I told my own story to then student journalist Gayle Wald, who wrote extensively of my rape in the now defunct UVA newspaper, the University Journal. I asked that she use a pseudonym (Kate) for me, and, like Jackie, I begged her not to interview the one man I knew had raped me, as I feared repercussions. There were two other attackers whose names I did not know. When I went to the dean of students at that time, Robert Canevari, I was covered in bruises, still bloodied, and had broken bones. He sat at his big desk across from me and suggested I was a liar and had mental problems for reporting my rape. Some of my new friends told me not to tell, that no one would believe me, that I would ruin my own reputation and that of “Mr. Jefferson’s University.” Almost a quarter-century after my gang rape, one attacker was arrested and jailed for his participation in it, for about six months. He had written me a letter of apology in 2005, which became the basis for a case against him. I wrote about the crime, the investigation, the plea deal, and its effects on my life in my memoir, Crash Into Me, which Bloomsbury published in 2011. I have become a victims’-rights advocate. The similarities between my experience and Jackie’s story are astounding because the culture has remained almost identical in the three decades separating our rapes.

Do you believe me?

Former George journalist Richard Bradley fired the first shot at the Rolling Stone story. “I’m not sure that this gang rape actually happened,” he wrote in a blog post, using brilliant plagiarist Stephen Glass (whom he edited, and who duped him) as a comparison base for the idea that astounding and uncomfortable stories must be fabricated. Though Bradley’s rant was on his personal blog, doubts have now burbled up at established outlets. Jonah Goldberg shares his opinion in an incredibly dismissive piece at the Los Angeles Times — “Much of what is alleged (though Erdely never uses the word ‘alleged’) isn’t suitable for a family paper,” he writes, as if the brutality of an assault could possibly be a measure of its veracity. (His colleague Meghan Daum was more reasonable.) Slate’s Alison Benedikt and Hanna Rosin, posted a thoughtful piece and podcast that asks the journalistic questions without doubting that brutal gang rapes happen.

And that’s what’s missing in all of this: the distinction between discussing journalism ethics and dismantling an important discussion because the subject matter seems extremely distressing. Wholesale doubt or dismissal of a rape account because it sounds “too bad to be true” is ridiculous. Is it easier to believe a rape by a single stranger upon a woman in a dark alley? What about marital rape? What if a prostitute is raped? Just how bad was it? We should not have a rape continuum as part of the dialogue, ever.

Of course nobody wants to believe that an ugly gang rape could happen at a venerated institution of higher learning, even though our rape statistics prove something is rotten in Charlottesville, in South Bend, in Tallahassee, in Boulder. But Americans are still a puritanical and repressed bunch who would prefer to see the only rosiest picture of our sweet land of liberty.

It’s also why we have struggled to comprehend the allegations leveled against Bill Cosby by 20-something (and counting) different women. Why couldn’t it just be the one, 10 years ago, who we believed? Cliff Huxtable, with his goofy faces, goofier sweaters and lovingly imparted life lessons, could never drug and rape women. But, allegedly, Cosby could, and has.

When the words Duke Lacrosse or Tawana Brawley are mentioned in the same context of the rape story in Rolling Stone, as Goldberg did, and as do the comments of many of the articles posted, including the actual Rolling Stone piece, I am filled with a hollow sadness, and rage. False reporting of rape is rare; it is not a myth perpetrated by the feminist machine. Those who make false accusations are despicable, and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But we cannot choose to disbelieve an account simply because it’s too awful to fathom. I am living proof — verified by the Virginia courts — that the horror is all too real.

Original Source

Original Source

Original Source

Software artist Scott Draves has released a new limited edition T-shirt that is printed with abstract algorithmic artwork from the Electric Sheep collective intelligence. Electric Sheep is a piece of software distributed across some 450,000 computers that generates beautiful imagery based on inputs from thousands of human participants. The software has been used to generate a mesmerizing screensaver, which we posted about back in 2009. Proceeds from T-shirt sales will support the screensaver service and further development of Electric Sheep.

photos via Scott Draves

submitted via Laughing Squid Tips

Back in 2012, a trio of interaction design students from HAWK University unveiled a concept for StreetPong, an interactive game of pong installed at a street crossing that allows you to play opponents waiting on the other side. The concept video (above) was viewed a bajillion times around the web, compelling designers Amelie Künzler, Sandro Angel, and Holger Michel to work with design firms and traffic experts to build a fully-functional device. After two years of waiting, the game units have been designed and approved for use by the city of Hildesheim, Germany where they were installed two weeks ago. Rebranded as the ActiWait, the devices aren’t just a clever way to pass the time while waiting for cars, hopefully they disuade impatient pedestrians from darting through traffic. (via Pop-Up City, @Staublfuse, Stellar)

Update: ActiWait currently has an Indiegogo campaign to help raise funds for further development.

gingerhaze:

HUNGER GAMES COMICS

PART 2

The mainland – which has long been criticised by international human rights groups for using organs harvested from executed prisoners as its main source of organ transplants – will completely ban the practice from next year.

All organs used in future transplants must be from donors, the Southern Metropolis News quoted Dr Huang Jiefu as saying. Huang is former deputy director of the health ministry and director of the China Organ Donation and Transplant Committee.

Major transplant centres had already stopped using executed prisoners’ organs, said Huang, who chaired an industry forum in Kunming on Wednesday.

There is more here, via Mark Thorson.  The article notes China has one of the lowest voluntary organ donation rates in the world.  0.6 individuals out of a million sign up to donate their organs after they die, and that means the number of actual donors is lower yet.  If you google around, you will find some ambiguity as to whether the donation rate or the “register to donate rate” is that low, but as far as I can tell (try this Chinese source) it is the actual register to donate rate, in part because they just aren’t many ways to register right now.  Please let us know if you have additional information on this point.

Wikipedia by the way reports:

The wait times for organ transplants for organ recipients in China are much lower than elsewhere in the world, and there is evidence that the execution of prisoners for their organs is “timed for the convenience of the waiting recipient.

Here are some of Alex’s earlier posts on a market for transplanted organs.

Davis, who is gearing up for a game against the Saints this Sunday, accused his opponent of running up the score on Carolina last year, a 31-13 loss. It never hurts to manufacture a little aggression now and again.

The fire, which shut sections of the 110 and 101 freeways, was being fed by wood framing at a planned seven-story, 1.3 million-square-foot luxury apartment complex. Ortiz said he didn't think anyone was living or working there when the fire started. The fire started at the DaVinci apartment complex, billed on its website as providing a "world-class resort apartment home." Construction has been underway for more than two years. Ortiz said the structure appeared to be "completely lost." ... The developer sought a pedestrian bridge that would link the Da Vinci to other complexes in the area and offer residents a route into downtown attractions. The developer told the city that transients living under the 110 Freeway would pose a safety threat to future renters. "The best form of self-defense is not being placed in a situation where you have to defend yourself," the company's proposal to city officials stated. Backers of the bridge insisted that it wasn't about shielding residents from the homeless and was simply a convenience for renters.

Novick says he’s also concerned Uber is not complying with a city requirement that cab companies make 20 percent of their vehicles wheelchair accessible. An Uber spokeswoman said the company provides a technology platform, not a cab service.