Not an easy read

Internet Publication of 3D Printing Files About Guns: Facts and What's at Stake | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Our government has a history of characterizing information (like encryption technology) and ideas (like socialism or Islam) as dangerous and likely to lead to violence. A free society cannot give the government unbridled discretion to make those choices, because of the systematic oppression that such a government can engage in. 

http://own.li/TSID

I don't always agree with EFF on everything but in this case they're right, and good on them.

Freedom is not always safe. 

When you think about it this is a little gross, isn't it?

Would you eat Vienna Toes?

This guy Manafort is apparently accused of some sort of fashion crime

Throw the book at him, I say.

Manafort trial Day 4 live updates: Tax preparer testifies ex-Trump campaigner did not disclose foreign accounts - The Washington Post

A jacket included in the government's exhibits admitted into evidence, at the trial of Paul Manafort, is shown in this image released from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office in Washington, DC, U.S. on August 1, 2018. (Courtesy Special Counsel's Office).

http://own.li/mPyV

Is Portland going nerd?

Good Job, Portland: Only One E-Scooter Has Been Thrown in the Willamette River So Far - Willamette Week

http://own.li/P7H8

Yippee! Things are about to get exciting on Facebook

Facebook removed a Unite the Right event and Russian disinformation page. Activists called it censorship - The Washington Post

Internet activists often connect anonymously and use tools to conceal their identities — the very tactics that Russian operators have also used.

http://own.li/47G3

No joke

Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship – Rolling Stone

When Facebook works with the government and wannabe star-chamber organizations like the Atlantic Council to delete sites on national security grounds, using secret methodology, it opens the door to nightmare possibilities that you'd find in dystopian novels.

http://own.li/iz66

Oops

Massachusetts May Have Just Accidentally Banned Horse Racing

http://own.li/LRM8

Sounds like a sensible solution to me

Chicken most likely to make you sicken, CDC illness data show - CBS News

It's enough to make you pine for Twinkies.

http://own.li/mwbB

Church's tree

Where there's a will there's a 1st Amendment (and a 2nd, of course, and WikiLeaks?)

3-D-printed firearms: Federal judge blocks posting of blueprints hours before they were to be published online - The Washington Post

http://own.li/9IOp

Clearly, the prospect of homemade, untraceable, undiscoverable firearms is deeply troubling, but heading down the path toward suppressing this information is troubling as well. Surely the ACLU and the New York Times will leap to the defense of the 1st Amendment here (just kidding), and the internet will prevail (not kidding at all).

Bring popcorn for this one, I'm thinking.

And who says we're running out of space for landfills?

Not hardly.

From Bloomberg:
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-us-land-use/

Here's How America Uses Its Land

By Dave Merrill and Lauren Leatherby July 31, 2018

So what happens here…

…is a demonstration of using reflected wi-fi signals and artificial intelligence technology to view the movement of people on the other side of a wall. It's still pretty primitive but…watch the video. 

We're starting to revise our thoughts about privacy.

Through-Wall Human Pose Estimation Using Radio Signals

http://rfpose.csail.mit.edu/

And it's absolutely maybe the Russians, possibly

Facebook finds 'sophisticated' efforts to disrupt elections

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook elevated concerns about election interference Tuesday, announcing that it had uncovered "sophisticated" efforts, possibly linked to Russia, to manipulate U.S. politics and by extension the upcoming midterm elections.

Read the full story from AP News. 

Bet you're sorry you sold all that Facebook stock now, huh, Bunky?

You definitely do NOT want to read this (even though it turns out somewhat OK)

Two people got rat lungworm from eating raw centipedes. Could you be next?
Popular Science

Rat lungworm isn't confined to Asia and the Caribbean anymore: It's in the U.S. And you don't have to knowingly eat raw bugs for the disease to strike you. Read the full story

Try chucking this one's chin

Texas men steal shark from San Antonio Aquarium, police say

July 31 (UPI) -- Two Texas men have admitted to stealing a shark from an aquarium in San Antonio and hiding it in a baby stroller, police said Monday.

Let's make a movie!

Fisherman catches great white shark off coast of Misquamicut Beach - Western Mass News - WGGB/WSHM

After it was caught, the fisherman put the shark back into the ocean.

http://own.li/OfYR

You might be able to make a buck selling disguises

I was doing a little research on the prevalence of security cameras in our modern, wired world (some say there's a camera for every 11 people in Britain, for example) when I googled across this Home Depot page offering surveillance devices for sale to thee and me.

I'm thinking maybe those fake glasses with the fuzzy eyebrows and the big nose.

I confess, I think the wrist watch with the hidden camera is kind of cool, although if you pretend you're checking the time on your watch you're really only surveilling yourself so I guess you'd have to hold your watch up in front of the Russian spy's face and say Look what time it is! or something like that. Something sneaky.

The trouble with all this—well, one trouble—of course is that the bugged power outlets and wall clocks and smiley buttons (smiley buttons?) are all part of the Internet of Things (IoT), a notoriously insecure network, and might as well be spying on you as them. Just mentioning.

Also, there are other ways to evade security cameras. You might check with your local tagger for help with that.

And if you get one of those watches and it works, let me know.

So stick to whiskey, then? (Or beer, it turns out.)

How much money shopping on Amazon while drunk could be costing you

Gin drinkers actually spend the most, about $82 on average, while whiskey drinkers are the cheapest buzzed buyers, according to addiction treatment facility the Archstone Recovery Center. 

http://own.li/KFtw

Downton Abbey, or How the Empire Was Lost…

…yes, I watched a couple of episodes…is being made into a major motion picture.

This is insignificant except I always wanted to say How the Empire Was Lost, is all.