Last minute geek

1. Man "registers" hive of bees as service animals
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

In Prescott Valley, Arizona, David Keller was annoyed by the number of people he believes are falsely registering their pets as service animals so they can take them anywhere they want. So he visited ...

2. Uber can find a ride to carry your skis in 23 regions
(English/engadget)

You can't often rely on ridesharing services for skiing trips. Few cars will have a rack, and even drivers of larger vehicles might balk if you try to stow your gear in the back. With Uber, at least, ...

3. My music distribution service is now offering automated memes
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

I release music sometimes, under my own name, or with my rock band, the Roland High Life. And in order to get our songs onto all the major music services, I pay an annual fee to DistroKid. They're an affordable ...

4. Twitch spends big to keep top streamers DrLupo, TimTheTatman and LIRIK
(English/engadget)

Begun, the streaming wars have. In a year filled with high-profile defections to rival services, Twitch has been forced to put down the cash to keep its top personalities on the platform. In an announcement, ...

5. Google's 2019 search trends mark a big year for Baby Yoda and 'Endgame'
(English/engadget)

Disney captured the 2019 zeitgeist in multiple ways, according Google's annual year in search roundup. While the streaming service is just a month old, "Disney Plus" was the top-trending ...

6. AT&T starts showing pause ads with motion and sound on DirecTV
(English/engadget)

... testing the ads on DirecTV, its satellite TV service, an... Read all  ...

7. Google Fi will warn you about spam calls
(English/engadget)

Google has been extending its cell carrier service, Fi, by offering an unlimited calling and data plan and expanding to cover the iPhone as well as Android devices. However, there were issues with the ...

8. Get a 3-year subscription to Windscribe VPN for just $48
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... even need an email to sign in. The service has already had a price drop of more than 80% off the MSRP of their 3-year subscription plan, but you can take another 20% off that final price by using the discount ...

9. Amazon claims Trump's 'personal vendetta' cost it $10 billion Pentagon contract
(English/engadget)

Last month, Amazon said it would formally challenge the US Department of Defense's decision to award the $10 billion JEDI contract to Microsoft, instead of Amazon Web Service (AWS). The lawsuit, unsealed ...

10. Microsoft will shut down to-do app Wunderlist on May 6th
(English/engadget)

Over two and a half years after Microsoft said it'd one day kill to-do service Wunderlist in favor of its own To Do app, it has revealed when it'll drop the ax: May 6th. After that time, Wunderlist's ...

11. For a brief moment I forgot this amazing 1975 Pontiac Firebird is a 1975 Pontiac Firebird
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... removed, but the bracketry remains. The carburetor was adjusted in February 2019, and service in November 2019 included checking the fluids and changing the engine oil. Power is sent to the rear wheels ...

12. Netflix dominates Golden Globes nominations while Apple lands its first
(English/engadget)

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association has announced the nominees for the 2020 Golden Globes, and this could be a milestone year for streaming. Netflix is even more of a frontrunner among streaming services ...

13. In any other industry, emergency medical billing would be considered fraudulent
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... bills for services that were never delivered, in a way that is, again, totally legal (thanks to intensive lobbying by the emergency medicine industry). For example: her husband was given a neck-brace ...

14. US pharma and biotech lobbyists' documents reveal their plan to gouge Britons in any post-Brexit trade-deal
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... should be based on a variety of value criteria.” PhRMA called for changes in the way the U.K.’s National Health Service sets price controls through comparative effectiveness research, an effort to control ...

15. Cadillac will help you shop for cars in a live virtual showroom
(English/engadget)

Cadillac is moving some of the car shopping process online... if not necessarily the parts you'd want the most. The automaker has launched a Cadillac Live service that lets you check out car features ...

16. Mercedes and Bosch commence self-driving trials in San Jose
(English/engadget)

... service in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose. To st... Read all  ...

17. One of the poorest, most desperate regions in Appalachia is experiencing an economic miracle thanks to fiber run by a New Deal-era co-op
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... Teleworks USA (which trains people for remote work, especially tech support and customer service), the coop has created high-paying, sustainable jobs in the counties, taking local unemployment from 12-16% ...

18. Canonical now offers AWS optimized Ubuntu Linux
(English/Linuxtoday)

 ZDnet: Canonical has brought premium Ubuntu Pro Linux images to Amazon Web Services Read all  ...

19. Prasad's Law: there's always enough health spending to concentrate wealth, never enough to diffuse it
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... Law": "Medical goods and services that concentrate wealth can be paid for; medical goods and services that disperse wealth are 'unaffordable.'" I would state it more generally as "Spending that involves ...

20. Nikki Haley: Confederate flag meant 'service, sacrifice, heritage' until Dylann Roof 'hijacked' it
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

21. Bernie Sanders has a “High-Speed Internet for All” plan, $150 billion for public broadband
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... funding for broadband development initiatives. The proposal would also break up what the campaign calls “internet service provider and cable monopolies,” stop service providers from offering content and ...

22. Bill Barr's police speech proves the GOP doesn't actually care about "small government."
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

On Tuesday, December 2, the current Attorney General and former Iran-Contra fixer gave a speech at the Attorney General’s Award for Distinguished Service in Policing in which he threatened to take away ...

23. Uber's first safety review contains thousands of sexual assault reports
(English/engadget)

Over the last few years Uber -- among other ridesharing services -- has been accused of failing to respond adequately to reports of sexual assault and other crimes linked to those on its platform. Now ...

24. UK's oldest ISP blames DoS attack on attempt to suppress human rights report about West Papua (read it now!)
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... activities"). Last month, Greennet was taken offline by a massive denial of service attack that it believes was aimed at suppressing this report from Papuans Behind Bars, which documents Indonesian political ...

25. McKinsey bills the US government $3m a year for anodyne advice from 23-year-old college grads
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... figure so high that the General Services Administration’s Inspector General recommended that all McKinsey contracts with the US government should be canceled (they weren't) (yet). Stoller explains how ...