Last minute geek

1. Judge tells Amazon to provide Echo recordings in double homicide trial
(English/engadget)

Prosecutors are once again hoping that smart speaker data could be the key to securing a murder conviction. A New Hampshire judge has ordered Amazon to provide recordings from an Echo speaker between January ...

2. Texas high schoolers compete in varsity barbecue
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... be pitmasters. Teachers or instructors aren’t allowed to help students during cook-offs, and they’re judged on best beef brisket, pork ribs, ½ chicken, best beans, dessert, best pit, most school spirit, ...

3. Trump's acting attorney general: Judges should be Christian with a "biblical view of justice"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, Trump's replacement for fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions, thinks that if you're not Christian, you shouldn't be a federal judge. Judges should be "people ...

4. AT&T disconnects whole families from the internet because someone in their house is accused of copyright infringement
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... lulled a lot of us into thinking that the telcos and cable companies had thought better of playing judge, jury and executioner for people's internet access, but as the years ticked by, the sector has become ...

5. Judge: Qualcomm must license modem tech to rivals like Intel
(English/engadget)

Qualcomm isn't having much luck defending itself against the FTC's antitrust lawsuit. US federal Judge Lucy Koh has ruled that Qualcomm must license some of the patents in its cellular modems ...

6. The All in the Family cast's 1975 protest of 'The Family Viewing Hour'
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... of the show's theme song, retitled "These Are the Days".[3] On November 4, 1976, United States district court Judge Warren J. Ferguson declared the Family Viewing Hour null and void, starting with the ...

7. A fun look at how Pixar celebrates Halloween
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... the judges at the annual lunchtime contest. Pixar's Halloween Celebration emcee Michael Frederickson narrates the piece and says, "At Pixar, we take not being serious on Halloween pretty seriously. It ...

8. The Ghastlygun Tinies: MAD's Edward Gorey satire that takes aim at school shootings
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... (that is, it's hard to know what is and is not fair until a judge makes a ruling), there's a broad consensus that fair use protects "parody" (using a thing to make fun of itself) but not "satire" (using ...

9. Google AIY Robot Companion
(English/makezine)

Print and wear a superb owl that uses AI vision to see faces, judge emotions, and respond Read more on MAKE The post Google AIY Robot Companion appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for ...

10. Judge schools Fox and Friends on why Trump's birthright citizenship plans are so ignorant
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Judge Andrew Napolitano sat down with his friends at Fox and Friends this morning to let them know why Trump's plan to end birthright US citizenship to babies whose parents are non-citizens or unauthorized ...

11. Julian Assange's demand for an English translator that speaks Australian causes everyone's eyes to roll so hard that it makes the earth bleed
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... Sydney Morning Herald: The first hearing in Julian Assange's lawsuit against Ecuador's Foreign Affairs Ministry was suspended as the WikiLeaks founder was unable to understand his translator, and the judge ...

12. Federal court thinks Georgia should count citizens' votes
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... said the judge, a nominee of President Barack Obama. May gave lawyers until noon Thursday to comment on whether the language in her order is “confusing or will be unworkable.” Her decision was applauded ...

13. The latest Xprize winner harvests drinking water from the air
(English/engadget)

Judges have chosen the winner of the Water Abundance Xprize, and it might just be vital to solving some of the world's most difficult shortages. The Skysource/Skywater Alliance has earned $1.5 million ...

14. A bot has been finding bugs and submitting patches for them, successfully masquerading as a human
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... a patch to be human-competitive 1) the bot has to synthesize the patch faster than the human developer 2) the patch has to be judged good-enough by the human developer and permanently merged in the code ...

15. A data-driven look at the devastating efficacy of a far-right judge-education program
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

More than 40% of US federal judges have attended Manne seminars, a notionally "bipartisan" educational conference presented by a Florida "Law and Economics" institute whose invited ideological allies ...

16. City of Seattle's official tow partner impounded a homeless woman's stolen car and wanted $21,634 to give it back
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... car its own apartment with granite countertops in a downtown high-rise") to store the car because she refused. Finally, after the bill had hit $21,634, a judge ordered Dick's to pay $2,000 for every day ...

17. Judge approves settlement between SEC and Elon Musk
(English/engadget)

Today, as first reported by Bloomberg, a judge has approved Elon Musk's settlement with the SEC over his tweets about taking Tesla private. Hopefully, this means that Tesla can move on and focus on ...

18. Lawyers: dildo-wielding cop hit men as well as women, so can't have been sexually harassing them
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... The city has a brilliant defense, though. Mountainside is asking a judge to throw out an explosive sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the borough by five male police officers and a female dispatcher, ...

19. Judge rejects Lime request to block e-scooter rivals in San Francisco
(English/engadget)

Lime just lost a last-minute bid to delay the launch of San Francisco's electric scooter pilot program. A judge has denied the company's request for a temporary restraining order that would ...

20. Federal judge orders car returned to homeless man struggling to pay parking tickets
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... was to seize his method of earning money. A federal judge has ordered the car be returned, for now. Via the SF Examiner: A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the city of San Francisco to return a towed ...

21. When the bass drops [GIF]
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Do not judge me when I am feeling the music. all the drugs [via, no identities or photographer credit provided] Read the rest Read all  ...

22. WestJet Airlines says no to drugs as Canada prepares to decriminalize cannabis
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... comparatively little about what it does to a user's reflexes or how long it may continue to have an effect on judgement. Read the rest Read all  ...

23. BBC on David Bowie in 1965: "Singer not particularly exciting. Routines dull"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

A new documentary, David Bowie: The First Five Years, reveals how wrong some BBC judges were when he first started out. In 1965, David Bowie's band, the Lower Third, auditioned for the BBC's radio air ...

24. Facebook's top lobbyist threw Kavanaugh a victory celebration in his home
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... enjoyed a beer or two hundred during their joint tenure); he prominently situated himself behind the judge during the hearings, as if to ensure that Facebook's officials were publicly seen to be supporting ...

25. Officials probe mysterious origin of Nazi symbol on fired cop's flashlight
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... excessive force against the man in 2016, but a judge acquitted him at a trial that bore no mention of the flashlight. He was never accused of using the flashlight, though another officer had used one to ...