Holly Yan and Madeline Holcombe, reporting for CNN:
Just over seven months ago, no one in the US had a confirmed case of Covid-19. On Monday, the US topped 6 million cases of coronavirus, which has killed over 183,000 people and left many young adults with long-term problems.
My god, this is getting old.
The pandemic seems to slowing at this point, but this most recent million can still be attributed to the south. Southerners: see here.
A fascinating story from David Shayer, writing for TidBITS:
“I have a special assignment for you. Your boss doesn’t know about it. You’ll help two engineers from the US Department of Energy build a special iPod. Report only to me.” […]
They didn’t actually work for the Department of Energy; they worked for a division of Bechtel, a large US defense contractor to the Department of Energy. They wanted to add some custom hardware to an iPod and record data from this custom hardware to the iPod’s disk in a way that couldn’t be easily detected. But it still had to look and work like a normal iPod. […]
We discussed the best way to hide the data they recorded. As a disk engineer, I suggested they make another partition on the disk to store their data. That way, even if someone plugged the modified iPod into a Mac or PC, iTunes would treat it as a normal iPod, and it would look like a normal iPod in the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer. They liked that, and a hidden partition it was.
Next, they wanted a simple way to start and stop recording. We picked the deepest preferences menu path and added an innocuous-sounding menu to the end. I helped them hook this up inside the code, which was rather non-obvious. In all other respects, the device functioned as a normal iPod. […]
My guess is that Paul and Matthew were building something like a stealth Geiger counter. Something that DOE agents could use without furtively hiding it. Something that looked innocuous, that played music, and functioned exactly like a normal iPod. You could walk around a city, casually listening to your tunes, while recording evidence of radioactivity—scanning for smuggled or stolen uranium, for instance, or evidence of a dirty bomb development program—with no chance that the press or public would get wind of what was happening.
Wow, what a story. It’s a commentary on the cultural ubiquitousness of the iPod in the 2000s, and an intriguing reminder that the secretive exploits of the U.S. government were not limited to the cold war. It reminds me of this clever image from the HBOMAX listing of CNN’s docuseries, “The 2000s”.
Graeme Wood has a great piece in The Atlantic about the sheepdog mentality of people like Rittenhouse. It’s well complemented by my piece on militarized masculinity. From Wood’s piece:
If you have never walked around with a gun in your pocket, you probably have poor intuitions about how it feels—the power; the discomfort of having a hunk of metal or plastic impeding your gait and mobility; most of all, the sense of responsibility. The writer Dan Baum strapped on a .38 in the course of researching a 2013 book on gun culture and described the experience well:
“Everything around me appeared brilliantly sharp, the colors extra rich, the contrasts shockingly stark. I could hear footsteps on the pavement two blocks away ... It made me more organized. Wearing the gun, I was Mr. Together. There was no room for screwing up when I was equipped to kill.”
Baum would avoid trouble, because he didn’t want to be anywhere near a fistfight, unstable people, or anything that might raise the possibility that he would fire his gun. The feeling of empowerment comes with a wearying imperative of caution: You do not seek out danger, and instead you live the most boring life possible, to avoid using the murder machine you have for some reason decided to attach awkwardly to your midsection.
What distinguishes Baum, who crossed the street to avoid violence, from Rittenhouse, who carried openly and crossed state lines to find violence? One is a seersucker-wearing, middle-aged journalist, and the other is an adolescent. The other salient difference, though, is that at 17, Rittenhouse has never known a world where owning a gun did not go along with what is sometimes known as the “sheepdog mentality”—the belief that your gun exists to protect others, and that you should rush in to perform that duty. [...]
Here are my thoughts on Kyle Rittenhouse: electric chair.
No, wait, that’s too easy. Give him life in prison but make him work to earn his meals and housing. And none of that special treatment for his own safety; put him in with the general population and let the inmates who are in for petty drug charges take turns turning him out in the showers. Don’t give me that “he’s only 17” nonsense, he clearly didn’t let his young age restrict him when it came to possessing a firearm, no reason to let it stand in the way now.
If you think he’s innocent or that he acted in self defense, go ahead and tap out of the argument, carve a swastika into your forehead, and leave the real patriots with fully developed brains to deal with this shitbag Republican superstar.
The COVID-19 pandemic has become an omnipresent aspect of life in 2020 America, and many articles on CopyrightBro reflect that. It’s no secret that the federal government has completely fumbled the response to the pandemic, at times ignoring it entirely while at other times intentionally spreading misinformation. Rather than post dozens of links in each COVID-19 related article to illustrate how they’ve screwed this up, we decided to give you one single link to this page, which compiles all of CopyrightBro’s articles on the subject. If they do anything good or effective, that’ll be included as well, but don’t hold your breath.
I first heard about Allan Litchman in the weeks before the 2016 election, and at the time, his prediction that Trump would win seemed far fetched. Still, I was enthralled with his “thirteen keys” system, and anxious to see if it would prove accurate for that election cycle. Of course, it did. However, Trump’s win wasn’t the only thing Litchman predicted: he also predicted that Trump would be impeached way back in 2017. Suffice to say he has a strong track record, and I trust his judgment.
Allison Gordon, reporting for CNN:
He has correctly predicted the winner of each presidential race since Ronald Reagan's reelection victory in 1984 using his "13 keys" system. […]
Now, Lichtman and his "13 keys" are ready to call 2020.
In an interview with CNN, Lichtman was definitive in his answer: "The keys predict that Donald Trump will lose the White House this year."
Lichtman bases his prediction on a model of "13 keys" that can be answered as either true or false for any given election. The "13 keys" in his system include factors such as the economy, incumbency, social unrest and scandals, as well as the candidates' personal charisma. […]
When asked if the key model could account for something as cataclysmic as the Covid-19 pandemic, Lichtman remained confident. "Look, retrospectively and prospectively, the keys go all the way back to 1860. They are what we call a robust system. So, I don't fiddle with them. They've lasted through enormous changes in our politics, in our economy, in our democracy. Don't fiddle with the keys," he explained.
I’ve been feeling pretty good about Biden’s chances the past few months, and this really cemented my belief that he will win the election (I’m knocking on wood read hard, though, believe me). Things can certainly change, and this doesn’t mean we should let off the gas in our attempts to get people excited about the Biden Harris ticket, but for the past 12-18 months, you could just feel Trump’s public support eroding. He still has his inalienable base, of course, but I think he’s losing ground among fair-minded people. I believe America has enough non-racists, non-xenophobes, non-white supremacists, non-homophobes, and non-bigots to outvote Trump’s base. The the issue now is whether we can get enough of those people to turn out to be able to counteract the damage that will be done by his blatant efforts to cheat.
If you’re interested in learning more about the thirteen keys, here’s a good place to start.
Turns out that Steve Bannon and the other We Build the Wall con artists actually TORE DOWN two miles of the wall and resold the rebar on Craigslist.
— Al Franken (@alfranken) August 21, 2020
You hate to see it.
Note, the poorly tuned Trumpets who donated to this are apparently stupid enough to think this is still a win for them, saying they don’t feel ripped off.
Jessica Bursztynsky, reporting for CNBC:
Apple hit a market cap of $2 trillion, doubling in valuation in just over two years.
It’s the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a $2 trillion market cap.
Apple was also the first publicly traded U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market cap.
Hartley Charlton, writing for MacRumors:
"Now, more than ever, people need a secure payment solution they can rely on. We're excited to be able to put the control back into our customers' hands, by launching Samsung Pay Card” […]
Samsung Pay Card offers five percent cashback on purchases from Samsung, and one percent cashback at other retailers. […]
Unlike Apple Card, Samsung Pay Card does not offer a physical card. It is a purely digital service available via NFC on Samsung smartphones and smartwatches.
I think we’re past the point of nitpicking over which device or OS had a particular feature first and who copied it — smartphones have matured to the point where virtually any new idea is bound to be iterated upon by a competitor — but credit cards don’t really have anything to do with smartphones.
To me, Apple Card didn’t even seem like a very strong product, and the credit card market didn’t seem like a space that a company like Apple would want to be in. The fact that Samsung (and Verizon, for what it’s worth) has now blindly followed Apple into that thicket a year later is just another indicator that they’ll never be anything more than shameless copycats who happen to have a side gig making household appliances.
Side note: “Samsung Pay Card” is a clunky, unattractive name that sounds like it was poorly translated from another language, and the design of the card itself looks like something you’d apply for in a Best Buy.
Robert Burnson, reporting for Bloomberg*:
In the new lawsuit, filed Monday in state court in Redwood City, California, the company is accused of collecting, storing and profiting from the biometric data of more than 100 million Instagram users, without their knowledge or consent.
The practice violates an Illinois privacy law that bars the unauthorized collection of biometric data, according to the lawsuit. Under the law a company can be forced to pay $1,000 per violation -- or $5,000 if it’s found to have acted recklessly or intentionally.
Everything Facebook does is either reckless or underhanded. The company is defined by their old motto of “move fast and break things”.
The system needs to come down hard on Facebook. Clearly, they don’t care about legal slaps on the wrist: what they need is a hard, legal kick in the balls that causes them to double over in pain and take a beat to catch their breath. Prosecutors need to not back down and accept a measly settlement, they need to pursue every dime they can in the hopes that they get enough to teach Facebook a real lesson, and if it financially levels them and drives the whole operation into the ground, so be it. All of Facebook’s products are doing more harm than good at this point, anyway.
From the Biden campaign’s website:
Kamala Harris Will Be The Next Vice President of The United States.
My first response to this news wasn’t outright disappointment, just the kind of let down you feel when you’re expecting something incredible and receive us something acceptable but bland. I just don’t feel like this pick really energizes the ticket or adds to it in a way that other options couldn’t have.
My first pick for Joe Biden’s VP was Stacy Abrams, followed by Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar. There was a lot of speculation about Kamala Harris in recent weeks, but in her last few debates, she just didn’t seem very genuine to me, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be her. Plus, there was the issue of her record which didn’t sit well with me, but I suppose the Biden campaign has decided that, while unsavory, her record isn’t likely to be a disqualifying issue for many of the undecided voters they’re gunning for. Kamala checks a few demographic boxes while keeping the ticket moderate enough not to scare away undecided independent voters. I liked Abrams most because I thought it would be a good move for the campaign to announce a fresh, young running mate with more progressive ideas, but I suppose the DNC wasn’t going to pick Biden’s running mate based what I or anyone else would’ve liked.
All in all, Kamala is more exciting than Mike Pence, but I feel like the Biden campaign has fumbled an opportunity to get people excited.
President Trump is considering new immigration regulations that would allow border officials to temporarily block American citizens and legal permanent residents from returning to the United States from abroad if authorities believe they may be infected with the coronavirus. In recent months, Mr. Trump has imposed sweeping rules that ban entry by foreigners into the United States, citing the risk of allowing the virus to spread from hot spots abroad. But those rules have exempted two categories of people attempting to return: American citizens and non-citizens who have already established legal residence.
This is outrageous and treasonous.
🇺🇸 United States: 0
🦠 COVID-19: 26
Gary NG, reporting for iPhone in Canada:
According to the founders [of Prepear], Apple “has opposed the trademark application for our small business, Prepear, demanding that we change our obviously pear shaped logo, used to represent our brand in the recipe management and meal planning business.” […]
Prepear says they are a small company with only five staff and legal costs have already cost them “many thousands of dollars” plus laying off one team member, in their legal fight against the iPhone maker.
From Apple’s notice of opposition to Prepear:
The Consumers encountering Applicant’s Mark are likely to associate the mark with Apple. Applicant’s Mark consists of a minimalistic fruit design with a right-angled leaf, which readily calls to mind Apple’s famous Apple Logo and creates a similar commercial impression
I’m usually inclined to defend Apple but this is a real stretch. Are all other potential minimalistic fruit designs completely off the table now? Would a left-angled leaf have made it better? It just seems like Apple is throwing their weight around here for no real benefit and to the detriment of real people. It’s disappointing.
Shan Li and Jennifer Calfas, reporting for The Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. has surpassed five million confirmed cases of the coronavirus as some states saw sharp upticks while others showed signs that the spread of the virus was easing.
The U.S. continues to lead the world in number of confirmed cases, followed by Brazil with about three million cases and India with more than two million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Brazil and India. Great company we’re keeping these days.
It’s been a little over two weeks since we hit 4,000,000. Still, it seems to be the south’s fault.
🇺🇸 United States: 0
🦠 COVID-19: 25
Sam Byford, reporting for The Verge:
Google has discontinued the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, its flagship phones that were released in October of last year. Both devices are out of stock in Google’s store in the US, though some variants are still available in other regions for the time being. […]
It’s unusual for Google to discontinue a Pixel phone so quickly. The Pixels 2 and 3 were on sale for around 18 months each, with Google stopping sales roughly six months after the introduction of their successors. The move means Google technically no longer has a flagship phone for sale.
Wow. Hard to imagine Apple pulling the plug on a current flagship iPhone before releasing the next one.
Russel Brandom, reporting for The Verge:
President Trump has signed a new executive order which will block all transactions with Bytedance, TikTok’s parent corporation, in an effort to “address the national emergency with respect to the information and communication technology supply chain.” It isn’t effectively immediately, but has a 45 day deadline.
“The spread [of apps controlled by the Chinese government] continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” the order reads. “The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security.”
Did Trump make this decision because his understands that TikTok is a national security threat? No. He made this decision because he’s a small person: he’d probably never even heard of TikTok before a bunch of teenagers hurt his feelings by using it to screw up his rally by bloating the number of expected attendees by requesting tickets despite not intending to attend.
But, would the U.S. better off without TikTok? Yes, we would. And 45 days isn’t a ton of time to arrange an international business acquisition.
Harriet Torry, reporting for The Wall Street Journal:
The U.S. economy contracted at a record rate last quarter and weekly jobless claims rose for the second straight week, amid signs of a slowing recovery as the country continues to struggle with the coronavirus pandemic.
The Commerce Department said U.S. gross domestic product—the value of all goods and services produced across the economy—fell at a 32.9% annual rate in the second quarter, or a 9.5% drop compared with the same quarter a year ago. Both figures were the steepest in records dating to 1947.
It’s a good thing we elected a businessman whose market savvy uniquely positions him to be able to shield the American economy from disaster and deliver us to a new era of economic prosperity. No, wait.
It’s a good thing we have the opportunity to reelect a businessman whose market savvy uniquely positions him to be able to fix the American economy after he drove it into the ground by fumbling the federal response to a global pandemic.
🇺🇸 United States: 0
🦠 COVID-19: 24
