Social Media Disinformation Really Good At Putting Us On Road To Authoritarianism

So many ways Trump and the GOP are using social media to
create an authoritarian/oligarchial regime for the United States

Last fall, journalist McKay Coppins of The Atlantic, decided to try a little experiment.

He created a Facebook page, not for himself, but for an alter ego. He picked a forgettable name, and posted a profile photo that obscured his face.  He clicked "Like" on the official pages of Donald Trump and his re-election campaign.

Almost immediately the Facebook algorithms prompted him to follow Ann Coulter, Fox and fan pages with titles like "In Trump We Trust." He dutifully followed these groups.

Coppins also wrote, "I also gave my cellphone number to the Trump campaign, and joined a handful of private Facebook groups for MAGA diehards, one of which required an application that seemed designed to screen out interlopers." 

The Facebook feed that Coppins' alter ego established created a new reality of sorts. Coppins watched live, on TV, the impeachment hearings, but on the Facebook page, edited video made the same televised testimony look like an exoneration of Trump.

Pro-Trump propaganda filled the Facebook feed, "Democrats are doing Putin's bidding," "The only message these radical socialists and extremists will understand is a crushing." and so on.

The resulting Atlantic article by Coppins had this startling paragraph:

"I was surprised by the effect it had on me. I'd assumed that my skepticism and media literacy would inoculate me against such distortions. But I soon found myself reflexively questioning every headline. I wasn't that I believed Trump and his boosters were telling the truth. It was that, in this state of heightened suspicion, truth itself - about Ukraine, impeachment, or anything else - felt more and more difficult to locate. With each swipe, the notion of observable reality drifted further out of reach."

If a seasoned, savvy journalist like Coppins felt disoriented, imagine how everybody else feels against this social media onslaught.   His article opens a window on how easy social media, especially bad actors like Facebook, can much more easily allow us to slide into authoritarianism.  Ifyou think it can't happen here, think again.

To an extent, it's already happened, and the apparatus is set up to take us down the road to this evil transition.

Coppins' Atlantic article, "The Billion Dollar Disinformation Campaign To Re-Elect The President," is a long read, but something you should read, scary as it is.

This Facebook full-court press by the Trumpsters is a way of using a megaphone to drown out real truth, or as Coppins puts it, "jamming the signals, sowing confusion." Coppins said scholars call all this "censorship through noise."

Pretty much all political campaigns have their share of spin, half-truths, dog whistles and such.

Trump and his campaign take this to a whole, extremely scary new level.

A important part of this strategy is to first discredit the news media, you know, all the good, but imperfect journalists of the world who actually try to expose the truth, the real truth about everything.   Trump operatives have gone through the social media accounts belonging to hundreds of political journalists, compiling all their posts into dossiers.

Definitely sounds Putinesque, doesn't it?

When a particular news story the Trumps don't like is written by a particular journalist, they and their surrogates flood Facebook and other places with any past social media post the journalist wrote that could be spun as problematic or worse.

This isn't to combat a supposed or real liberal slant in the news media. This effort is to destroy mainstream media altogether.

We're not just talking about the tedious talking heads and columnists at national outfits like the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC and others.

They're after your local newscaster and newspaper. Coppins writes that the Trump campaign will train a "swarm of surrogates  to undermine local TV stations and newspapers. Polls have long fouond that Americans across the political spectrum trust local news more than the national media. If the campaign has its way, that trust will be eroded by November."

Meanwhile, these operatives are creating innocuous looking "news" sites like the Arizona Monitor or The Kalamazoo Times that look like traditional local publications, right down to community notices and school news and events schedules. Only very knowledgeable people, taking a close look at these "newspapers" will find no bylines and no addresses for local offices. And these "newspapers" will have plenty of sophisticated propaganda that sort of looks like news.

The Coppins article goes on about these details, and again, you really should read every word.

For Trump and his fascists minions, it's all about destroying all the the institutions that have held our democracy together for more than two centuries. They really do want to get rid of all the ideals about what makes America America.

That's why Trump is also seemingly pardoning every crooked person he can find, while at the same time punishing good citiziens and patriots.

He and his Republican toadies want to destroy the fact the United States, for all its faults, has been a beacon of freedom for the world.

This is particularly dangerous now as we seem to be at the begining of the Corornavirus pandemic. It's not officially a pandemic, but it's getting worse by the minute.  The whole world needs accurate and timely information to stay healthy, weather the economic crisis this will could bring on, and squash out rumors that could lead to civil unrest.

A lot of the citizenry of this nation seem like they think Trump and the Republicans are boffo for doing lying and trying to establish some sort of weird oligarchy.   They want to punish "the right people," i.e. anyone who is nonwhite and even remotely  liberal.

Sounds great to them.  Just wait until this new autocracy turns their powerand anger on them, for whatever reason.

Another Sign Of The Apocalypse: Super-Crazy QAnon Conspiracy Book Selling Like Hotcakes

The idiots of Qanon prove that there are zillions of suckers
born every minute. 

These are the kinds of stories that just make me want to give up.

A book called, "QAnon: An Invitation to the Great Awakening" was a big boffo seller on Amazon, at least earlier in March.  

QAnon, for those who mercifully haven't heard about it yet, is probably the most bonkers conspiracy theory in history.

The basics of the conspiracy are that the world is run by a Satanic cabal headed by Hillary Clinton. She and other prominent Democrats also supposedly run a child sex ring in the nonexistent basement of a Washington DC pizzeria.

Moreover, according to this wild and stupid conspiracy, Donald Trump and Special Counsel Robert Mueller are secretly working together to destroy this evil cabal.

As NBC reported in March , the book was at No. 9 in all books about politics and No. 1 in all books about "Censorship."

Apparently, "QAnon: An Invitation to the Great Awakening" is full of garbage that comes at you willy-nilly.

NBC describes it thusly:

"On one page, the book baselessly claims that the United States created AIDS, polio, Lyme disease, some natural disasters, two Indiana Jones movies and the Pixar movie Monsters Inc."

Wow, that's some busy government we have doing all that! I wonder why this secret cabal took the time to make these movies?

NBC's report goes on helpfully:

"The book posits that Monsters Inc shows off a government plan to collect children's blood 'that gives (government figures) some form of high or youthful look."

Oh. But then why doesn't Hillary Clinton not exactly look like a spring chicken? Oh, sorry, we're not supposed to question the logic of these insane conspiracies, are we?

The reason that this weirdness is doing well on Amazon has to do with the old, sad fact in America: There is a sucker born every minute.

Social media has been playing wack-a-mole with these whackadoodle conspiracies. NBC quotes conspiracy theory research Mike Rothschild saying YouTube recently changed its algoritms to make it more difficult for the grifters pushing Qanon to make monetize their video creations.

So, Rothschild said, these grifters are no dummies: "They absolutely exploited flaws in Amazon's algorithms." The book, Rothschild said is "a bold new step in the endless grift at the heart of Q."

In an earlier article from last August NBC tried to explain why people fall for conspiracy nonsense that is batshit crazy.

People have always thought that many things don't happen by chance. There's an underlying reason. That's how conspiracy theories are born.

I get the NBC story on why people believe conspiracy theories, but I'm still struggling with how people get to that state of mind.  According to this article, people who are generally anxious and feel like their life is not fully in their control anymore, gravitate to conspiracy theories.

Alright, so I get it how people believe in things like a conspiracy over the assassination of JFK, even if the theories are pretty off. But how do people get to insane things like Qanon?

What's really dangerous is the people like Alex Jones who peddle conspiracy theories to the masses.  I'm sure he doesn't believe the crap he spouts. He knows he can make money off it because of all the gullible people out there.

As thoughtcatalog.com points out, these gullible people are willing to believe the global elite are planning to murder 80% of the world's population, that children killed in the Newtown, Connecticut massacre were just crisis actors that were part of a "false flag." Jones had a guy on his show and demonstrated support for the dude who was claiming that the 2,000 children that go missing everyday are being sold to Mars as sex slaves.

There we go again. The strangest conspiracy theories involve sexual crimes against children. I'm glad people are fighting back. Jones is being sued for his terribly harmful antics, and it's not going well for Jones at all. 

The best explanation for Qanan and its popularity that I've seen came from columnist Clarence Page.

He writes:

"The Qanon theory, whatever its origins, sounds tailor-made for core Trump supporters who need supporting arguments for the alternative scenarios spun by the White House, conservative media and other Trump allies.

Qanon is scary partly because its promoters want it to be. 'Triggering the libs' or 'owning the libs' - i.e doing things specifically to upset liberals - is its own reward to many on the right. But paranoid politics can pop up on all political sides - and often does."

Unfortunately, the game of "owning" the other side, the enemy, has become more important than facts in this world. The most dangerous part of all this is that when we ignore facts for fun and profit, those facts always come back to bite us on the ass. Often with tragic results.

Scary Message From Obama Is Truly Scary, Even If It's Fake News

Jordan Peele literally put words in Barack Obama's mouth using
technology that would make today's fake news seem like kid's play

A PSA recently came out that features former President Barack Obama, but it's almost immediately apparent that something is off when you start watching it.

His voice sounds a little weird. Like he's been drinking (Obama has absolutely no reputation as a drinker.)

The things he says are even more off kilter.

Here's part of the script:

"We're entering an era in which our enemies can make it look like anyone is saying anything at any point in time - even if they would never say those things......So, for instance, they could have me say things like, I don't know, (Black Panther's) Kilmonger was right! Or Ben Carson is in the sunken place! Or how 'bout this, Simply, President Trump is a total and complete dipshit."

We all know Obama would never say things like publicly. But in the video, his lips are moving perfectly with the words being spoken. How could this be.

It turns out "Obama" is being voiced by filmmaker and actor Jordan Peele. (One of Peele's schticks is impersonations of Obama.)

As BuzzFeed reports, the PSA was a project developed by Peele and BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti, who is Peele's brother in law.

The screen in the video splits, to show Peele delivering the PSA and Obama appearing to do it. It's amazing the technology makes it look like Obama is actually speaking. And scary, for sure.

The script continues: "This is a dangerous time. Moving forward, we need to be more vigilant with what we trust from the internet."

Buzzfeed describes this technology and ugly world future this way:

"A slew of slick, easy-to-use and eventually seamless technological tools for manipulating perception and falsifying reality, for which terms have already been coined - 'reality apathy,' 'automated laser phishing' and 'human puppets."

Buzzfeed goes on: "Such tools could be used to create pornographic videos with celebrities' faces superimposed or have world leaders appear to make outrageous and potentially dangerous statements. "
I have to admit: Donald Trump has a point. There's a lot of fake news out there. It's just that most of what he calls fake is true, and some of what he calls true is fake.

That's the crux of the problem: Who do we believe? And what do we do about people who absolutely believe things that aren't true, because fake news can be so convincing?

The point Peele is illustrating just points to how much worse things are going to get with technology. How are we going to trust what we see and hear? Even legitimate news sites will have trouble discerning what is real and what is fake.

Plus, let's face it. Most people believe things that fit their already set viewpoint. And many are willing to go over the top with their beliefs.

There's still a lot of people out there convinced that "Pizzagate" is real, that Hillary Clinton is running a child sex ring out of the basement of a Washington DC pizzaria, never mind that said pizza place doesn't even have a basement.

There's an amazing number of people out there who think the Earth is flat, that jet contrails are really "chemtrails" raining chemicals down on us to control our minds, that surviving students of the February mass shooting in Florida are just "crisis actors" trying to take all our rights away.

When this becomes widespread, when videos will literally put words in other peoples' mouths, this conspiracy theory, fake news believing group will become bigger and bigger.

And real world problems won't get solved because everyone will be chasing fake world problems.

Technology can be a force of good. But more and more often, it's being weaponized. Mostly for psych ops. That's not the future I want.

Guys Too Nonchalant About Volcano Blowing Up Next To Them

A couple of guys were setting up a GoPro camera on the edge of a volcano on Vanuatu, a Pacific Island, when the volcano decided to explosively erupt.

I think the guy setting up the camera in the video was a bit too relaxed about the flying chunks of lava flying around him.

What do you think? Watch the video and decide:

Product Safety Commission Blows Up Mannequins In Disturbing 4th of July Video

Mean girls? Nope, just the Consumer Products Safety
Commission using mannequins to demonstrate
the risks of 4th of July fireworks. 

The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission wants you to have a safe 4th of July.

Fireworks are part of the celebration, and too many people blow off their hands or worse during celebrations.

By the way, you could have guessed this but the vast majority of people who are injured by fireworks are teenage boys.

Go figure.

The CPSC put out a video that I can't decide whether is disturbing or funny. Or maybe both.

They blew up mannequins to show how dangerous fireworks can be.

Be safer than these mannequins!

Another Reason To Hate The Computerization Of Cars: Ransomware

Is ransomware in your car next?

A lot of us live in fear of  ransomware

You've probably heard of it. Hackers get into your computer and shut it down, deny you access to all your files, unless you pay a ransom to the hackers.

Often, if you get hit by ransomware, it's because you opened a safe looking email attachment, a fake email you thought was from a friend, and you're screwed.

Technically, that's partly your fault for not being careful, but we all get scammed every once in awhile, and fooled into doing something you thought was innocent. The scammers are crafty.

Now, there's other ransomware to worry about. As Consumer Reports tells us, the threat is in your car.

Says Consumer Reports:

"The reason cars are such inviting targets for ransomware hacjers is that they're increasingly computerized. And as automakers have transferred more and more functions to processors, they've neglected to install the same levels of security found in other modern devices - such as phones and laptops.

'Once you connect the car to the internet, the entire vehicle becomes a threat surface. If the auto industry doesn't adapt, we'll continue to see mistakes and potential vulnerabilities for things like ransomware to take place,' said Craig Hurst, executive director of the Future of Automotic Security Technology."

There's much more interesting things to read about this topic at in the Consumer Reports article.

One thing they don't get into, though, is this:  Unlike your laptop or phone, you don't get to install the hacking safety features in your car. The automaker does.

But if your car should get hacked one day and you get a demand for ransomware, I guarantee the car companies will not be held responsible.

It'll be all on you, because big corporations have all the rights these days, not you.

E-Cigarettes Safe? Watch This Guy Get Victimized By Exploding One

An e-cigarette explodes violently in
this guy's jacket pocket, in an image from a security camera.

We've all heard of the new Samsung phones bursting into flames, but it turns out e-cigarettes are just as dangerous.

According to Slate, a French nightclub owner was badly hurt when his e-cigarettes blew up in his jacket pocket. Dramatic surveillance video of the incident is at the bottom of this post.  

Amine Britel was outside his nightclub last week in Toulouse, France

Says Slate:

"'All of a sudden I heard a loud band and a noise like a flare had gone off, only ten times louder. After the shock of the explosion, I realized that I had caught fire,' Britel said, according to Ubergizmo. 'I did not really understand what was happening to me. The pain only came afterwards.'"

Britel was hospitalized with severe burns and his fingers melted to his jacket. He plans to sue the Chinese manufacturer of the e-cigarette batteries.

E-cigarette batteries have caused all kinds of mayhem, it turns out.

According to Wired, a Colorado man broke his neck, lost some teeth and had burns and facial fractures when his e-cigarette blew up. Teenagers in California and Tennesee were badly injured by exploding vaping devices.

The e-cigarettes are powered by lithium-ion batteries, which are in many, many gadgets, including the laptop on which I'm writing this.

However, most computer and mobile phone manufacturers have exacting standards for batteries, notes Wired, but not all less sophisticated devices like vaping things are so carefully built.

Plus, some people are altering their e-cigarettes, which makes them more dangerous.

Smoking regular cigarettes is known to be very dangerous. Vaping is dangerous too, for some of the same reasons, and as it turns out, because a few explode. Explosions are dangerous, as the Frenh nightclub owner found out in the video, below.

Florida's "Treasure Coast" Is A Disgusting Goop Of Toxic Algae

The gross algae bloom in Florida. Photo
by Terry Spencer/AP 

Nobody's going in the water and everybody's pointing fingers of blame in Florida for something truly disgusting:

A soupy, icky, possibly toxic algae bloom is gumming up the shoreline at the peak and heat of summer.

As if alligators and unrelenting humidity weren't enough, now you can't go in the water.

Or even near it.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency because of the blue in southeast parts of the state.

And everybody's pointing fingers at each other in blame for the ickiness.

The algae is there because of polluted, phosphorus-laden water coming from Lake Okeechobee, about 35 miles away from the affected areas.

The governor says it's the federal government's fault for neglecting repairs to the lake's old dike system.

He could have a point, since the Army Corps of Engineers is inadequately funded for this type of thing. Plus, there was tons of rain in Florida this past winter and spring, so with their inadequate system, they had to release more tainted water from the lake than usual.

But lots of state officials have looked the other way as farming and other interests have dumped pollution and phosphorus in the Lake Okeechobee. Had they cracked down on that, this not have been such an issue.

As local public radio station WQCS noted, there was a deal in the works back in 2011 for the Florida Legislature to buy more land around Lake Okeechobee for water storage, but Governor Scott's administration came in and put an end to that idea.

So yeah, this might be Scott's fault, too.

Area residents say the algae smells so bad that they  have to stay indoors, and when they do go outside, some of them get watery eyes and respiratory problems.

Plus, wildlife is suffering, too, and some marine animals are probably dying because of the algae.

This kind of thing happens elsewhere due to poor pollution controls, mostly from agricultural, sewage treatment plant and industrial runoff.

There was a big algae bloom on Lake Erie last summer, which threatened Toledo, Ohio's drinking water supply.

Here where I live in Vermont, toxic and thick algae have lately made appearances in and around St. Albans Bay, which I  can see from my hillsice home, in the past few summers. That has caused swimming bans and warnings to keep children and pets away from the algae-slimed water.  It could hurt or kill them.

Of course, it's expensive to enact pollution controls that would prevent all this phosphorus and other bad stuff from getting into waters around Florida, the Great Lakes, Vermont and elsewhere.

But do we really want to spend our summers holding our noses and worried about our health because of all this algae in the water?

Heres an aerial view of the algae in Florida to give you an idea of the scope of the Algae From Hell



And he's a sad video of a manatee trapped in the algae goop and a family trying to hose it off to give it some relief. It's unclear if the manatee made it out of the algae and survived or not:

Super Soakers Prevent Fire Tragedy

One of the kids who squelched what could have
been a dangerous fire with Super Soakers 

The call to the West Fargo, North Dakota fire department seemed dire:

A blaze was starting to crawl up the siding and balcony support of an apartment building. Toward the apartment where a home bound, disabled man on oxygen lived. A man who couldn't escape or fight the fire on his own.

The fire was catching some decking on fire, too. A propane tank from a grill was just feet away from the flames.

The fire trucks raced to the scene, only to find no fire. Just the smoldering remains of a planter destroyed by flames, some melted, burned siding on the building and some charring on the deck support beam, and a deck that was partly scorched.

Oh, and some kids with Super Soakers.

The kids had been playing with the Super Soakers when the spotted the flames. They turned their guns on what had been a growing fire to keep it at bay until the firefighters arrived.

Devin Darnell had attacked the flames from below the deck with his Super Soaker, says television station WDAY. His friend, Katelyn Simon opened fire on the blaze from a neighboring deck.

"I was squirting at it and there was sparks and stuff falling down," said Devon.

Another kid called the fire department and neighbors banged on doors, alerting residents.

West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller said he was really surprised and pleased by the kids' firefighting efforts. "It got into the siding, it got into the decking. We were probably minutes away from having a real, real serious fire," Fuller said.

But the Super Soaker kids prevented that from happening.

After the excitement was over, the West Fargo Fire Department brought the kids to the fire station for a tour and a pizza party.

Shark Feeding Frenzy View From A Drone: Glad I Wasn't in Water!

In a view from a drone, sharks devour the carcass
of a humpback whale as tourist watch from small boats.  

When sharks are hungry, watch out!

Nothing can demonstrate that more than drone footage taken last week of 70 tiger sharks involved in a feeding frenzy on a dead whale in Shark Bay, Australia.

According to CNET, the sharks were tearing apart the carcass of a humpback whale as tourists in small boats watched the action.

It was filmed by Eco Abrolhos cruises, which had the tourists out in the water.

Eco Abrolos notes that the sharks were so close that people on the boats could reach out and touch the sharks, but that probably wasn't a good idea. Tiger sharks eat people, too.

Cruise operator Joe Cox said the sharks "were very docile and very well fed, we counted around 70 tiger sharks of all shapes and sizes."

Yeah, I bet those sharks were really well fed. '

Watch the video below, unless you are squeamish about blood flowing into otherwise pretty tropical turquoise water:

Scary! People Film Fatal Crane Collapse In NYC

The scene of a giant crane collapse in New York Friday
Photo by Stephanie Keith/New York Times. 

A crane collapsed during a snowstorm Friday morning in TriBeCa, Manhattan, killing one person and injuring three.

It's amazing more people weren't hurt, considering the collapsed came on a busy Manhattan street.

The construction crew was trying to lower the giant crane to secure it as winds increased during the storm. Something went wrong, and the whole thing collapsed.

A person in a nearby building captured the dramatic collapse. The people filming dropped a lot of F-bombs, which I would have done too if I'd witnessed this. (The swear words were bleeped out of the video you'll see below.)

Here it is

Shoot! We're Going To Carve A Pumpkin!

Kirsten Joy Weiss shows off the Jack O'Lantern
she made by repeatedly shooting it. 

I betcha a lot if people have carved or will carve a Jack O' Lantern for their Halloween celebrations this week.  

If you haven't I can show you one pumpkin carving method that I don't recommend. Unless you're a total expert like Kirstin Joy Weiss.

Weiss is a well known sharpshooter, and she shows us how she carves a pumpkin by repeatedly shooting it.

Don't try this at home! The Consumer Products Safety Commission says there are about 4,000 injuries annually from carving pumpkins. Shooting would just make the carnage worse.

Even so, as you'll see in the video below, the the gunshot Jack O'Lantern turns out looking not half bad.

Here's the video:

Scary: Suspension Bridge Collapse As People Are Walking Across It; And Glass Bridge Cracks

The New Zealand suspesion foot bridge after it partly
collapsed, sending people in the gorge below  

Recently in New Zealand a group of hikers were crossing a suspension bridge over a gorge along a hiking trail.  The bridge then abruptly snapped, flinging at least three people off of it.

Amazingly, the people who plunged 28 feet down landed in the water, not the rocks, so they weren't badly hurt, says stuff.co.nz 

The hikers, one of whom was filming, said the bridge suddenly let out a loud crack, and three people were pitched over the side into the water. A fourth person clung on to a piece of the bridge and was able to hoist himself back up.

The video, which you'll see at the bottom of this post, shows the hikers calmly walking across the bridge, then the view goes off in all kinds of wild directions as they fall, then the view plunges under water. Then you see people emerge.

The glass walkway in China that
later cracked whe somebody dropped
a stainlesss steel mug on it.  

Officials in New Zealand said there was a manufacturing fault in a cable on the suspension bridge, which led to the collapse.

Before we get to that video, there was another scary bridge accident, this one in China. There's a glass bottomed walkway more than 3,500 feet above s gorge.

It would be scary enough to venture out onto the walkway to begin with. Then, somebody dropped a stainless steel mug as they walked across the bridge and part of the glass bottom shattered.

Understandably, this set off a rush of people trying to get the HELL off the walkway now if not sooner.

The People's Daily Online, via Mashable, said only one of three layers of glass broke, so nobody was in any danger. Plus the glass is designed to kind of hold together even if it does crack.

The walkway is closed, however, until repairs are made.

Here's the video of the New Zealand collapse. The slow-mo version near the end is especially terrifying:

DIY Pro Tip: Don't Be Darwin Award Contender When Demolishing Wall

Man demonstrates wrong way to
do a DIY demolition project.  

A viral video is circulating this week, which you will see at the bottom of this post, of a guy demolishing a cinder block wall.

I know that sounds incredibly pedestrian and boring, but watch the video.

As Digg notes, it's the same kind of approach as those people who sit on the tree branch that they are cutting off a tree.

When you watch the video, you know the instant it starts what's going to happen. Still, the suspense oddly builds as you watch and wait for the big moment.

I tell ya, people are just so creative in ways to be stupid.  They people in the video are speaking a foreign language, but I'm sure the guy wrecking the wall told his friends, "Hold my beer. Watch this."

There's no word on the wall demolish guy's fate, but (spoiler alert!) judging from the video, it seems he survived to give us another eye rolling video in the future.

You can use this video as an instructional film on how not to create an open concept in your home interior design.

Watch:

Difficult Decision: Who Is Moron Of The Week: Florida Shooter Or Conrad Hilton III

This really dumb bro in Florida wanted to set up
a shooting range in his yard in the middle of a densely
populated suburb. What could go wrong? Add caption

Joseph Carannante, 21, who lives near St. Petersburg, Florida, likes to target practice with his gun.

Nothing wrong with that. Lots of people do.

Problem is, he wants to do it in a densely populated neighborhood where a lot of kids live. And because of lax NRA-inspired laws, he can.

WFLA-TV says people in the Lakewood Estates neighborhood are outraged at Carannante, and I can't blame them one bit

Caranannte's front yard shooting range is little more than a pile of sand. Like that's going to stop a bullet.

This isn't some remote place with no houses. It's a densely populated suburban neighborhood. Houses and yards are all right next to each other, and Carannante is right in the middle of it.

Talk about carrying Second Amendment rights too far! Yep, Carannante has the right to have a gun and shoot it. But he thinks that his Second Amendment rights trump his neighbors' right to enjoy their own property without fear of getting killed.

Oh, Carannante is so generous! He's offered to let his neighbors know when he's going to shoot, so they can all hide and stay out of the line of fire. So on weekends, when the kids want to play outside, Mom and Dad want to fire up the barbecue, and the new people down the block want to gather on the deck for some afternoon cocktails, they can't.

Because Carannante all but said he expects everybody to hide away while he fires his gun.  Apparently, it's too much work to drive all the way to a shooting range, poor baby.

Like Florida doesn't have a zillion shooting ranges.

"I don't want to have to go to a gun range, when I can just go outside my door," Carannante whined to WFLA.

Hey, it's only a 9 mm gun he's got. What could go wrong?

At the urging of the NRA, Florida has a law barring municipalities from barring gun ranges in people's yards.

Says TampaBay.com:

"Legislators passed a law in 1987 that declared state statutes superseded the laws of local municipalities when it comes to gun regulations.

Upset that some cities were still toying with local ordinanes, the Legislature passsed another law in 2011 that authorized hefty penalties for violations. Local officials could be removed from office and face personal fines of up to $5,000 for passing gun regulations."

But even the local NRA head thinks Carannante is a bonehead, and disputes the idea the law allos Carannante's stupidity. Says BayNews9 in Florida: 

"An NRA lobbyist in Florida also made a statement about the issue Monday. 'Shooting ranges don't belong in dense residential neighborhoods and, in fact, nothing in the law allows them,'" said Marion Hammer.

 There was some possible good late breaking news this morning on this situation.

Via the Daily Kos, a neighbor reports that a local radio station and a Florida shooting range helped out. Said the neighbor:

"This morning, a popular radioshow at 102.5 "The Bone" called young Mr. Carannante and offered a one year free membership to a gun range, donated by Shooter's World in Tampa.....They convinced the kid to commit to tearing down the pile of pallets and sand."

That's good, but it appears the neighborhood, the radio station and the shooting range all had to offer rewards for stupid Carannante to give up his plan. That's why this world can be sad. They only way we can protect ourselves from awful people is to reward them.

Something ain't right.

Speaking of "Ain't Right," we now offer, from the Washington Post, a simultaneously sad, infuriating and funny account of an airline flight on July 31 on which hotel heir Conrad Hilton III was aboard.  

Pretty faced rich boy bro Conrad Hilton III
caused a HUGE ruckus on a overseas flight
last summer. Makes him sound like
the Worlds Most Obnoxious Person.  

As the Post describes him: "Meet Conrad Hilton III,  younger brother to Paris and some kind of royalty in his own mind, it appears."

Anyway, Conrad Hilton III was Not Pleased with his flight experience aboard the British Airways Flight 269 from London to Los Angeles.

Of course, the FBI and other law enforcement are Not Pleased with Conrad's behavior, and he was in court this week facing federal charges of being an asshole on a plane. A really big dick, actually.

The Washington Post quoted from a conversation Conrad had with the FBI, which is contained in a 17-page indictment against Conrad filed this week in U.S. District Court.

"'I told all of them I could get all of their jobs taken away in less than thirty seconds,' Hilton said, according to the complaint, as he recalled interactions with flight attendants.

He credited a man at the back of the plane with stopping him from killing a flight attendant 'If that man wasn't there, that guy (the flight attendant) would have been #%*&# killed on that flight. A hundred percent I would have killed him.'"

On the bright side, Conrad's narrative to the FBI matches that of flight attendants and passengers on the flight, who also had conversations about the experience with the FBI. No need to sort any "he said, she said," is there.

See? Conrad is so helpful.

It all started roughly a half hour into the 10-hour flight, when attendants started the task of serving drinks to passengers, but Conrad kept standing the aisle, blocking the way and refusing to move.

From the Washington Post: 

"One flight attendent described Hilton as flying from 'one tirade after another' throughout the flight. He complained that the flight attendants were ignoring him or 'taking the peasants' side.' 

He whined about being upset because he broke up with his girlfriend, one flight attendant said. He bragged that his dad would bail him out of the situation as he had in the past. After all, he's already banned from several other airlines, he told the flight attendants."

'My father will pay this out, he has done it before. Dad paid $300,000 last time,' Hilton allegedly said."

Gawd, I don't care how rich Conrad's dad is, this dude is too expensive. If I were dear old dad, I'd jettison the kid and make him get a job at McDonald's or Walmart. That would teach him.

It went on, says the Washington Post:

"Food and drink service were delayed for more than 40 minutes as flight attendants struggled to deal with Hilton walking up and down the aisles in a rage. Just about every sentence featured the f-word. And Hilton seemed particularly keen on directing his rage against male members of the flight crew.

One flight attendant reported to investigators that Hilton at one point swund at him but missed his face by 'about ten centimeters.' His fist hit the bulkhead instead.

'If you wanna square up to me, bro then bring it on and I will %&*$# fight you,' Hilton allegedly told the flight's co-pilot in another incident."

If I were the co-pilot, I would have let Conrad try to fight. I'm sure everyone who paid good money to be on the flight would have been more than willing to jump in and help.

I think Conrad's pretty boy face could use a good messing up anyway. It would give him character. Lord knows he needs it.

Conrad complained that a male passenger was giving him the "stink eye" which Conrad took to mean either the guy wanted to fight him or have sex with him.

I really, REALLY think the guy wanted to fight you, Conrad. And maybe flush your head down the toilet.

You were already spending too much time in the bathroom anyway, smoking a joint, says the flight crew and FBI. The pot didn't mellow you out much, did it?

Conrad, exhausted from his duties of being an enormous prick, finally fell asleep the crew tied him up with restraints. Conrad later woke up, discovered the restraints and screamed, "I'm goin to $*&@ kill you!"

Yeah, whatever.

If convicted, Conrad faces up to 20 years in prison. But don't worry, he won't spend so much as a minute behind bars. I'm sure daddy will bail him out of this mess, again.

But if I ever find myself on a flight with one Conrad Hilton, III, I won't put up with his bull.

I'm one of those "peasants" who would find something fun and humiliating for him. It would be a blast!

Or better yet, maybe our Florida gun nut can use Conrad Hilton III for target practice instead of the pallets and pile of sand in his yard that he wanted to use.

Someday Your Car Might Be Taken Over By Hackers

Imagine this:

Will hackers remotely be able to cause wrecks
by this by taking control of cars'
computer systems?  

You're zooming down a highway in lots of traffic, doing the speed limit of 65 mph.

All of a sudden, your brakes don't work. Your car speeds up even though you have your foot off the gas. The steering wheel swings back and forth wildly, sending you all over the road.

Worse, this is happening to the cars around you. There's a big pileup and lots of people die.

I know that's the plot of some bad science fiction/action movie, but it's a worse-case scenario of what could perhaps happen in the future, at least according to a Vox article called "The Next Frontier in Hacking: Your Car."

Cars are increasingly equipped with super duper navigation, and will integrate with cellphones wonderfully, and will have more and more self driving capabilities, says Vox.

There's already a LOT of computer stuff in cars, and they're starting to become prone to hacking.  Most of the computer components in the past have been internal, but they're increasingly being connected to the greater outside Internet, and that trend will probably just keep accelerating.

You can only hack into these cars if you had physical access to them, just as you would need physical access to cut the brake lines or steal the battery or something.

But already, cars are starting to become hackable without ever getting near the thing.

Says Vox about one Universityof California study of an unnamed late model car:

"They found it was alarmingly vulnerable to external attack.

In one attack, they created a malicious music file that, if played on the car's stereo, would let hackers gain control of the car's computer systems. In another, they demonstrated that they could hack into the diagnostic equipment used by auto mechanics using its wifi connection, and from there install malicious software onto vehicles being serviced."

Some of this is dangerous and not deadly. Hackers would be able to listen in on conversations going on in the car, or disable the locking system, making it super easy to steal the car.

Hackers are already close to being able to take control of cars, or are already there.  From a scary article from Forbes about how researchers showing they ways cars like a Ford Escape and Toyota Prius  can be hacked:

"As I drove their vehicles for more than an hour (Charlie) Miller and (Chris) Valasek showed that they've reverse-engineered enough of the software of the Escape and the Toyota Prius (both the 2010 model) to demonstrate a range of nasty surprises: Everything from annoyances like uncontrollably blasting the horn to serious hazards like slamming on the Prius' brakes at high speeds.

They sent commands from their laptops that killed power steering, spoofed the GPS and made pathological liars out of speedometers and odometers.

Finally, they directed me out to a country road, where Valasek showed that he could violently jerk the Prius' steering at any speed, threatening to send us into a cornfield or a head-on collision. 'Imagine you're driving down a highway at 80,' Valesek says. 'You're going into the car next to yoi or into oncoming traffic. That's going to be bad times.'"

Notice the cars in the above passage were 2010 models. I can only imagine new model cars, like, say my new 2015 Toyota Tacoma could be hacked even more readily or extensively.

The danger of getting yourself killed by a hacker is of course the biggest worry. But there are also fraud worries. They can adjust the odometer. They could also probably alter the computer to hide the fact the used car you're buying has been in a wreck or a flood in the past.

And what if your car is hacked, you steer into a car carrying a family. How do you prove you weren't at fault?

There haven't been many hacks of cars yet, Vox explains, because each model of car has custom software that changes year to year. So you can't get widespread hacks, and it's harder to catch up with the changes.

PCs and smartphones are easier to hack hecause they all have standard operating systems, Windows, Android or iOS. So a single piece of malware can screw up millions of devices, says Vox. Plus, PCs and smartphones are connected to the Internet much more than cars are.

But as automakers keep upping the ante on the sophistication of car systems, the more likely they'll be hooked up to the Internet, and run on more hackable Android, Windows or iOS systems.

Says Vox:

"In the next year or two, most car manufacturers are going to support Android Audio and Apple's Carpay - standards that allow smartphones to control a cars dashboard touchscreen display. These interfaces could provide another potential route for hacking."

Vox said automakers need to do comprehensive security audits of the cars' software as part of a vehicle's safety testing process.

But that's hard to do since the auto manufacturers can't even look at source codes.  Vox says "suppliers consider this proprietary information and guard it closely."

OK suppliers, what's more important? Keeping people safe or making bundles of money?

Oh, right. Making bundles of money.

We hope the the Society of Automotive Engineers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration go forward with new standards for cyber security in vehicles.

Meanwhile, Miller and Valasek, the guys in the Forbes article above, have a good idea, according to Wired:

"The hacker duo has created a prototype of an intrusion detection system for cars - a $150 device that plugs directly into a vehicle's network to monitor and block suspicious commands."

Nice idea, and it would help, but I bet it could get hacked, too.

To be fair, some car manufacturers are starting to get on board with security.

According to CNN Money, Ford hardware has built-in firewalls that stop malicious tampering, and the company has a team of hackers that are always looking for weaknesses.

Toyota has a similar "good guy and gal" hacking team. Also, says CNN Money, "Toyota embeds security chips in the tiny computers throughout the car, narrowing how they communicate and lessening the chance of outsider interference."

Which makes me feel a little better about my new Toyota Tacoma.

Still, all this stuff in cars makes me nervous. I guess it boils down to our increasing lack of ability to control things. I actually resent even simple things, like car windows that roll down electronically, instead of with a crank.

If the electrical system malfunctions and I have to get out, how do I do it? Should I just carry a crowbar in the truck always, just in case?

Now we have all these computer systems. Convenient and fun, yes. I'm no Luddite. But I still have misgivings about all this, since for me, the point of driving a vehicle is to get from Point A to Point B, not be entertained by glitzy bells and whistles.  

"People Are Awesome" Video Of 2014 Incredible Things You Can't Do

A still from the 2014 "People Are Awesome video  

There's a series of videos on YouTube under the "People Are Awesome" banner which shows a variety of athletes doing incredible stuff that would kill most people.

Or at least deeply embarrass them if they made a mistake.

The "People Are Awesome" People have just released a year end video featuring what I guess are their favorite athletes and stunt people.

Feel inspired, or defeated because you can't do the stuff in the following video, but either way, it's a totally fun watch:

Proof That Firefighters Have A VERY Tough Job

 

Sure, carrying a flaming propane tank out of a building
is perfectly safe. Really!  

Two videos show why firefighting can be a drag. And dangerous.

In China, a restaurant was badly damaged in a blaze.

Firefighters mostly had the fire out, but a propane tank in the building continued to spout flames, and seemed ready to explode.

No worries, firefighter Huanpu Jiangwu just carried the burning tank out of the restaurant, the flames inches from his head.

Never mind that it could have blown up any time.

Watch:




Next, we have a firefighter helping to put out a truck fire, somewhere. He's got his ladder against the truck, his hose running.

But things don't go so great. (It's fun, in a sick sort of way, to see how things deteriorate when he's out of view as traffic passes.)

Watch:

Would You Like A Pair Of These Comfy Shoes?

I don't know if this photo is a joke or not.

Well, yes it's a joke, but I wonder if there's a "serious" designer behind these shoes. If there is, it's an escalation on the shoe fashion industry's War on Womens' Feet and Dignity.

Tottering on high heels must be a huge chore. (I've never tried it, never will.)

But wearing these? I hope she's not in a hurry to wherever she's going.

I also hope there's no market for these shoes. And that the women pictured has an excellent podiatrist.

ANOTHER Dumb Way To Die: Rooftop Skateboarding

Seems lately I'm constantly finding people who find new ways to die weird, violent deaths.

Yeah, this looks perfectly safe.  

Though nobody died in the video you'll see below, some people have decided that skateboarding high up on rooftops is a really cool idea.

Don't try this at home, kiddies!

Some idiot will see this video and try it anyway, then tumble off a roof and kill him or her self, but that's why we have the Darwin Awards, right?

Stay safe, and live dangerously, vicariously, by watching the video. Your health insurer will thank you if you do it that way.