Last minute geek

1. Mighty Mount Automatic Grip Fast Wireless Car Charger Dash & Vent Mount review
(English/the-gadgeteer)

REVIEW – In 2020, 20 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving.  Mighty Mount makes an automatic grip phone ...

2. United Airlines reports "significant decline in demand" for flights to China
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... by three or four per day. The changes reduce flights to Hong Kong from San Francisco and Newark; to Beijing from Washington Dulles, Newark and Chicago; and Shanghai service from San Francisco, Newark and ...

3. Wuhan (pop. 11 million) shutting down public transport to halt spread of coronavirus
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... has killed 17 people and infected over 500, is thought to have originated in a Wuhan seafood market. According to The Washington Post, the now closed "1,000-stall bazaar sold not only seafood but marmots, ...

4. 'Absurd,' Saudi Arabia calls claims MBS hacked Bezos phone
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... told Reuters earlier on Wednesday. Previously on Boing Boing: Forensics team accuses Prince Bone Saw of hacking Jeff Bezos's phone to obtain kompromat and force Washington Post silence on Khashoggi [Cory ...

5. BLS to remove computers from data 'lockups,' chief denies it's aimed at Michael Bloomberg
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

The U.S. Labor Department Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) today announced changes to BLS economic data “lockup” procedures that involve removing a number of legacy computers from its Washington newsroom, ...

6. A poor, Trump-voting Florida town opened a government grocery store to end its food desert, but it's "not socialism"
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... Sean Lynch, a retired Navy vet, told The Washington Post: "We take the water out of the ground, and we pump it to your house and charge you. So what’s the difference with a grocery store?" Not a thing, ...

7. Former CIA officer Jerry Lee sentenced to 19 years for handing U.S. info to China
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... classified info to Chinese for $800K; he maintains he never did https://t.co/4lSLY04w8N — Rachel Weiner (@rachelweinerwp) November 22, 2019 And from the backstory by Washington Post reporter Rachel ...

8. Human composting is now legal in Washington, and offered by a Seattle business
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

A startup based in Seattle says they plan to offer an alternative to human burial and cremation in Washington state, now that it's finally legal. Yep, human composting. Won't take it personally if you ...

9. Washington, DC sues DoorDash for allegedly misleading users about tips
(English/engadget)

DoorDash's change in tipping policy has come too late to avoid legal repercussions. The District of Columbia Attorney General has sued DoorDash over claims it not only stiffed couriers (aka Dashers) ...

10. You will fail.
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip was among the first to share a provocative tidbit of Washington gossip on Twitter today. Earlier today, Phillip (who is wonderful, you should follow her on Twitter) ...

11. Trump advisor Roger Stone convicted for obstruction of justice
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... did release the emails during the campaign, which became a major talking point of the election that Donald Trump went on to win. Washington Post: In arguments and testimony over the past two weeks, prosecutors ...

12. Amazon unhappy Microsoft won $10 billion 'war cloud' Pentagon contract
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Donald Trump has long made a sport of mocking Amazon founder and Washington Post newspaper owner Jeff Bezos, and Jeff Bezos is well aware of this. Microsoft just won a $10 billion so-called “war cloud” ...

13. China has 500+ Uighur camps and prisons and is holding far more than one million, activists say
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... cited figure of one million people. From AFP via Yahoo News: The East Turkistan National Awakening Movement, a Washington-based group that seeks independence for the mostly Muslim region known to China ...

14. Facial recognition tools shared by 'Massive, secretive network of police departments'
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... requests in Washington state were made through a previously undisclosed email listserv known as FITlist. FITlist — with FIT standing for “Fraud and Identity Theft” — includes officers from at least a dozen ...

15. Trump says something stupid: 'They shouldn’t be having public hearings'
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... this spectacle live in Washington. After weeks of Republicans demanding that Schiff open up the doors and allow the public to see the impeachment proceedings, Trump says this morning: “They shouldn’t ...

16. President tweets something dumb again, slurs 'three lowlife reporters' at Washington Post
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... can't get any more surreal and weird, and it does. Every. God. Damned. Day. Lots of this today. The walls are closing in. The degenerate Washington Post MADE UP the story about me asking Bill Barr to ...

17. Overturned mango truck makes mess of Maryland morning commute
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... & Rescue Service spokesman Pete Piringer told a reporter that one person suffered minor injuries. No word on what caused the truck to roll over, but the Washington Post reports traffic was backed ...

18. DOJ charges former Twitter staff with spying for Saudi Arabia, digging into MBS critics' accounts
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... charges here. MBS and the KSA are believed to have murdered Washington Post journalist and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi by cutting off his head and dismembering him alive. “One of those implicated in ...

19. Costco and Instacart are testing one-hour prescription deliveries
(English/engadget)

People on the west coast who need medication quickly might be able to get their medication delivered in as little as 60 minutes. Costco and Instacart are testing prescription deliveries in Washington and ...

20. New national poll shows top 4 Democrats beating Trump
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows just about everyone beating Trump. Washington Post: Former vice president Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) run strongest ...

21. Smugglers are sawing through Trump's border wall with a $100 cordless cutter
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

Mexican drug smugglers are using cordless reciprocating saws to cut holes in Trump's new border wall. The holes are large enough for people and drug packages to go through, reports The Washington Post. The ...

22. New rare book catalog features book with Martian flora from 1903
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

One of most most memorable Cool Tools podcast episodes was with rare book expert Rebecca Romney. She recently started a new rare book firm in Washington D.C. called Type Punch Matrix and she sent me a ...

23. Lyft's stricter safety policy could make it harder to ban bad drivers
(English/engadget)

Lyft has implemented a new set of safety guidelines and protocols that current and former employees worry will allow unsafe drivers to return to the platform, according to The Washington Post. In June, ...

24. Wearable pop-up personal tent
(English/BoingBoing ibag)

... but it's actually now being used by delivery people, police officers, and various other folks who have to move around in the rain. The Washington Post has a feature about the popularity of "pod" products, ...

25. Trump administration may blacklist Chinese firms that routinely copy tech
(English/engadget)

The US trade war is meant in part to punish China for allowing intellectual property theft, but the Trump administration might not be convinced it goes far enough. Washington Post sources claim that White ...