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Showing posts from September, 2018

Watch: Saturday Night Live casts Matt Damon as Brett Kavanaugh. And he is YELLING A LOT.

“I’m gonna start at about an 11, then I’m gonna take it to a 15 real quick.” Ever since Thursday’s hearing before the Senate judiciary committee at which prospective Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh was asked about the accusations of sexual assault levied against him, stemming from events in his adolescence, America has been asking one question: What’s Saturday Night Live going to do ? Is this a healthy impulse? Probably not, but how will we know what’s funny unless comedians tell us? Okay, sure, that’s the question a lot of people ask about nearly every major news event, but the Kavanaugh hearing was different, because a.) it came right before Saturday Night Live ’s season 44 premiere and b.) the show has made a habit recently of casting big-name celebrities in these sorts of parts. ( Alec Baldwin , of course, plays Donald Trump, but Melissa McCarthy essayed Sean Spicer, Robert De Niro has played Robert Mueller, etc., etc., etc.) So how would Saturday Night Live handle
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Elon Musk is out as Tesla chairman

His take-Tesla-private tweets cost him $20 million and earned him oversight for his Twitter account, but he gets to stay on as Tesla CEO. Elon Musk is finally facing some consequences for his August take-Tesla-private dance. The South African-born billionaire will step down as chairman of the electric car company and pay a $20 million fine as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC had sued Musk on Thursday after he reportedly turned down an initial deal at the last minute. As part of the new agreement announced on Saturday settling the SEC’s suit, Musk will resign as Tesla chairman within 45 days, and he won’t be able to be re-elected to the post for three years. Musk and Tesla will each pay a separate $20 million penalty, which will be distributed to harmed investors, and Tesla will appoint two new independent directors to its board. A judge will have to approve the settlement. Tesla will also hire a lawyer to keep an eye on Musk’s commu
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The FBI has reportedly reached out to Brett Kavanaugh’s second accuser

The bureau has contacted Deborah Ramirez. It’s not clear whether it plans to contact Julie Swetnick, Michael Avenatti’s client. The FBI has reportedly reached out to Deborah Ramirez — the second woman to come forward with sexual misconduct allegations about Brett Kavanaugh — as part of its investigation into the background of the Supreme Court nominee. Senate Republicans on Friday agreed to pause his confirmation process to allow for a one-week federal investigation into the sexual assault and misconduct claims against Kavanaugh, including those brought by Palo Alto University professor Christine Blasey Ford , who testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week. The Washington Post reported on Saturday that the FBI, as part of that investigation, has reached out to Ramirez, a former classmate of Kavanaugh’s at Yale University. It’s not clear whether agents have interviewed her yet. Ramirez alleges that Kavanaugh exposed himself to her and thrust his genitals in her
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Michael Avenatti’s next move is unclear after Senate agrees to Kavanaugh FBI investigation

Avenatti says if his client isn’t part of the FBI probe, he’ll take his case to the American public. Since Michael Avenatti and his client Julie Swetnick , who claims she witnessed Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assault girls in high school and says he was at a party where she was gang raped, came forward, they have insisted they want an FBI investigation into her claims. Now the FBI is probing “ credible allegations ” against Kavanaugh — but it’s not clear where that leaves Avenatti, or his client. The Senate on Friday agreed to allow the bureau to conduct a “supplemental FBI background investigation” into the allegations against Kavanaugh. The move came after Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing heavily implied, but did not say outright, that he would vote against Kavanaugh’s confirmation on the Senate floor unless a one-week investigation was opened. On Thursday, Kavanaugh and Palo Alto University professor Christine B
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Elon Musk reportedly almost avoided a federal lawsuit — but then backed out

Tesla shareholders and the board are still sticking by him, at least for now. The Securities and Exchange Commission this week announced that it was suing Tesla chairman and CEO Elon Musk over his now-infamous August tweets that he had secured funding to take the electric carmaker private . According to a new report, the federal government’s lawsuit was almost avoided — but Musk backed out of the deal. On Thursday morning, the SEC and Musk’s lawyers had reached a settlement that would have required Musk to step down as Tesla’s chairman and fined the company of millions of dollars, according to a report from David Gelles, Matthew Goldstein, Emily Flitter, and Andrew Ross Sorkin at the New York Times . He would still have been able to stay on as CEO, and it would have brought to a close the drama that’s unfolded surrounding Tesla and Musk’s privatization dance in recent weeks. But Musk backed out. Why? Because the emotional, highly public executive wanted to be able to proclaim h
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Extra Extra: Samuel L. Jackson Questions Brett Kavanaugh

Because watching SNL can be like watching sports, check out today's end-of-day links: most patient cat in the world, Facebook hacker attack, all-female FDNY company, Kavanaugh/'Pulp Fiction' mashup, all-female termite society, and a puppy brigade. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2OlyVZp September 29, 2018 at 01:16AM
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Brooklyn Cafe Owner Accused Of White Supremacist Ties Insists He's 'Not A Nazi'

A new East Williamsburg cafe has temporarily shuttered following an online campaign that accused owner Guy Sands of being a White Supremacist and member of the Proud Boys—charges that Sands vehemently denies. "I am a proud Brooklyn ordinary guy," he told Gothamist. "I'm not a goddamn Nazi." [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2QlN3zl September 29, 2018 at 01:05AM
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Missy Robbins's New Italian Restaurant Misi Shines In Williamsburg

The only problem with Missy Robbins's exceptional Williamsburg restaurant Lilia is getting a table. So when the acclaimed chef (and Obama favorite ) opened her second Italian venture in Williamsburg, Misi , earlier this month, there was hope that one might get the Robbins experience without a struggle, at least at first. No such luck; less than a month into service, Robbins has another hit on her hands with Misi. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2NaRIC2 September 29, 2018 at 12:47AM
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NY Women Talk About Confronting Jeff Flake Before Pivotal Kavanaugh Hearing

After announcing this morning that he planned to vote yes on Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court, Jeff Flake had some sort of come-to-Jesus moment while sitting in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this afternoon. After huddling with Democrats and much palace intrigue, he ultimately announced he would not support final confirmation until the FBI had a week to further investigate the accusations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh. And many people are pointing to two women in particular as responsible for this dramatic twist. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2DDiDH3 September 29, 2018 at 12:32AM
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Study Confirms Cats Aren't That Into Catching Rats

We've long been told that cats can help tamp down rat populations —let's face it, who wouldn't want a Ninja force of cats to combat vermin? However, a new study from Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution has shattered conventional wisdom, positing that cats actually don't catch that many rats. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2NLyAj2 September 28, 2018 at 11:25PM
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Look At This Big Ass Subway Iguana Who Thinks He's A Dog

We've seen emotional support hens and dead sharks and ducks on leashes and ravenous raccoons all cram onto express trains in order to commute to work or whatever the Animal Farm equivalent is. Some of them were cute, some of them were memorable, and some of them were just weird as heck. But none of them—and I mean NONE of them—had the integrity, the physical presence, and the audacity of Iggy, the big ass iguana spotted on the subway this week. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2OpQHKS September 28, 2018 at 10:45PM
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Photos: Miss Subways Crowned After Drinking A 'Vial Of Cuomo's Tears'

  After a particularly dramatic primary that focused a lot on NYC's (crumbling) mass transit , it was fitting that the new Miss Subways invoked Governor Cuomo—and his challenger after winning the title last night. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2R2bqmJ September 28, 2018 at 10:13PM
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Signs Appear In Subway Stations Asking NYers To Share #WhyIDidntReport

  On Thursday, as Dr. Christine Blasey Ford's gut-wrenching testimony gave way to Brett Kavanaugh's sniveling prevarications , two fed-up New York City students began taping homemade fliers onto columns in busy subway platforms. [ more › ] Gothamist https://ift.tt/2R8E9X2 September 28, 2018 at 09:18PM
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FBI Contacts Deborah Ramirez, Kavanaugh Accuser, As Investigation Begins

The White House has reportedly provided the FBI a list of witnesses it is allowed to speak to in its investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. (Image credit: Melina Mara-Pool/Getty Images) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2xLKQ99 September 30, 2018 at 02:45AM
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Elon Musk Settles With SEC, Agrees To Step Down As Tesla Chairman

The Tesla CEO reached a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission to resolve a securities fraud case. As part of the deal, Tesla and Musk agreed to pay $40 million in penalties. (Image credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2OWEESn September 30, 2018 at 01:59AM
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U.S. Closes Consulate In Basra, Citing Iran-Backed Violence

The State Department is temporarily closing the U.S. Consulate in the southern Iraqi city and evacuating all diplomats stationed there, following a rocket attack early Friday morning. (Image credit: Haidar Mohammed Ali /AFP/Getty Images) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2OnqH2X September 29, 2018 at 10:34PM
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Trump Administration Moves To Escalate Census Lawsuits To Supreme Court

The administration is asking a lower court to block Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' deposition as it prepares to ask the Supreme Court to review the lawsuits over the 2020 census citizenship question. (Image credit: Education Images/UIG via Getty Images) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2OoPtiY September 29, 2018 at 09:57PM
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Tsunami Hits Indonesia, Leaving More Than 300 Dead

Hospitals and rescuers are struggling to deal with the aftermath of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake that triggered an unexpected tsunami that struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. (Image credit: Muhammad Rifki /AFP/Getty Images) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2Ra66Oa September 29, 2018 at 07:49PM
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Jefferson Airplane Co-Founder, Singer And Songwriter Marty Balin Dead At 76

Balin was a principal contributor to the San Francisco psychedelic scene — and by extension, a prominent contributor to the sound of American rock. (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2DGoI5F September 29, 2018 at 06:33PM
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No Cash Needed At This Cafe. Students Pay The Tab With Their Personal Data

For free coffee, students can provide their names, phone numbers, email, majors and interests. This information is then provided to corporate sponsors who want to "diversify students' career choices." (Image credit: Chaiel Schaffel /Rhode Island Public Radio) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2zEfh2L September 29, 2018 at 02:37PM
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The Hot New Musical Trend In Zanzibar Is From The '80s — The 1880s

The traditional music known as taarab was fading away — until a school began giving lessons to aspiring musicians. (Image credit: Amy Yee for NPR) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2NMCubD September 29, 2018 at 02:01PM
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The Russia Investigations: Rosenstein Reprieved — For Now

The Justice Department's embattled second in command — who is in primary command of the Russia investigation — went to the White House on Monday expecting to be terminated. But that didn't happen. (Image credit: J. Scott Applewhite/AP) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2xYGFpP September 29, 2018 at 02:00PM
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New Education Budget; Yale Discrimination Investigation; Faults In Loan Forgiveness

Also in our weekly education news roundup: 6 ways to talk to your kids about sex after Kavanaugh; Homeschooling is growing and changing rapidly (Image credit: LA Johnson /NPR) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2Is3AyA September 29, 2018 at 01:00PM
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Airport Workers In New York, New Jersey To Receive Minimum Of $19 Per Hour

The Port Authority Board of Commissioners announced its unanimous decision on Thursday. Businesses will be required to pay the increases in stages over five years. (Image credit: Julio Cortez/AP) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2DDdgYs September 29, 2018 at 12:12AM
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Thousands Could Be Deported As Government Targets Asylum Mills' Clients

In 2012, a Justice Department probe shut down law firms that helped Chinese asylum-seekers fabricate or inflate claims of persecution. The clients were left alone, but now 13,500 may have to leave. (Image credit: Sally Deng for NPR) News : NPR https://ift.tt/2OkkapO September 28, 2018 at 11:46PM
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XKCD "Curve Fitting", in R

You probably saw this XKCD last week, which brought a grimace of recognition to statisticians everywhere: It's so realistic, that Barry Rowlingson was able to reproduce all but two of the "charts" above with a simple R function (and a little help from the xkcd ggplot2 theme): And now for @revodavid et al, with the xkcd package and font! (still two more to do...) pic.twitter.com/3aVHis23Gl — Barry Rowlingson (@geospacedman) September 21, 2018 You can find the R code behind Barry's reproductions here, and I'm sure he'd welcome contributions for the remaining two charts :).    from Revolutions https://ift.tt/2ImR1ol via IFTTT
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Passwords and power laws

According to this paper [1], the empirical distribution of real passwords follows a power law [2]. In the authors’ terms, a Zipf-like distribution. The frequency of the r th most common password is proportional to something like 1/ r . More precisely, f r = C r – s where s is on the order of 1. The value of  s that best fit the data depended on the set of passwords, but their estimates of  s varied from 0.46 to 0.91. This means that the most common passwords are very common and easy to guess. Size of password spaces If passwords come from an alphabet of size A and have length n , then there are A n possibilities. For example, if a password has length 10 and consists of uppercase and lowercase English letters and digits, there are 62 10 = 839,299,365,868,340,224 possible such passwords. If users chose passwords randomly from this set, brute force password attacks would be impractical. But brute force attacks  are practical because passwords are  not chosen uniformly fr
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Death toll from Indonesian quake, tsunami rises to 832: agency

The death toll from an earthquake and tsunami on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi rose to 832 on Sunday, the national disaster mitigation agency said, adding it assessed the affected area to be bigger than initially thought. Reuters: Top News https://ift.tt/2Okc6oY September 30, 2018 at 09:51AM
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Rescuers search for survivors of Indonesian quake, tsunami

Rescue teams in Indonesia struggled on Sunday to reach communities feared devastated by a major earthquake and tsunami on Sulawesi island, with a toll of more than 400 killed expected to rise sharply as contact is restored with remote areas. Reuters: Top News https://ift.tt/2NRJvYv September 30, 2018 at 09:36AM
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