Macy Santa Maria Details Leaving He is We Tour; Alleges Sexual Assault

Jason Tate Sep 22, 2017

Macy Santa Maria has posted a statement on Facebook talking about why she left the recent He is We tour. She alleges she was sexually assaulted by the lead singer Rachel Taylor:

I had the opportunity to do what I love this past summer and play guitar for the band He Is We, but unfortunately it was short lived. The night before the first show, I was sexually assaulted by the lead singer Rachel Taylor. I have contemplated sharing my story and have decided to share it on my own in hopes to raise awareness of sexual assault, specifically in the music industry. My objective is shed a little light on sexual assault, that a man or WOMAN is capable of committing. Rachel Taylor has ruined a part me and for her to have the opportunity to hide from this and continue her music career is disgusting. This is something I’m not going to hide from, and neither should anyone facing this issue.

Update: Rachel Taylor has responded on Facebook:

I have zero idea as to why any allegation was made and money was asked for. I will always promote a safe work environment and I was never given any reason to believe it was anything other than that. If I had known that there was ANYTHING offensive or out of line, it certainly would’ve been handled. I will always be a champion for equality for all. That is what the name He Is We means. I will remain steadfast and resolute to what the name means. I am confused and hurt that anyone would make such a despicable accusation. I will continue to be an example of leading the fight on.

Anatomy of a Moral Panic

Jason Tate Sep 22, 2017

Maciej Ceglowski:

The real story in this mess is not the threat that algorithms pose to Amazon shoppers, but the threat that algorithms pose to journalism. By forcing reporters to optimize every story for clicks, not giving them time to check or contextualize their reporting, and requiring them to race to publish follow-on articles on every topic, the clickbait economics of online media encourage carelessness and drama. This is particularly true for technical topics outside the reporter’s area of expertise.
And reporters have no choice but to chase clicks. Because Google and Facebook have a duopoly on online advertising, the only measure of success in publishing is whether a story goes viral on social media. Authors are evaluated by how individual stories perform online, and face constant pressure to make them more arresting. Highly technical pieces are farmed out to junior freelancers working under strict time limits. Corrections, if they happen at all, are inserted quietly through ‘ninja edits’ after the fact.
There is no real penalty for making mistakes, but there is enormous pressure to frame stories in whatever way maximizes page views.

‘Rick and Morty’ Co-Creator Slams Online Trolls

Jason Tate Sep 21, 2017

James Hibberd, writing for Entertainment Weekly:

Continues Harmon: “These knobs, that want to protect the content they think they own — and somehow combine that with their need to be proud of something they have, which is often only their race or gender. It’s offensive to me as someone who was born male and white, and still works way harder than them, that there’s some white male [fan out there] trying to further some creepy agenda by ‘protecting’ my work. I’ve made no bones about the fact that I loathe these people. It f—ing sucks.”

Nathan Fielder: How the Cult Comedian Rules the Outer Limits of Awkward

Jason Tate Sep 21, 2017

Andy Greene, writing for Rolling Stone:

Television has never seen anything quite like Fielder, who grew up in Vancouver as a gawky kid who loved to perform magic tricks, then went on to get a business degree from the University of Victoria. Nathan for You manages to make use of both his love of magic and his business acumen, as well as his natural social awkwardness. On the show, he “helps” mom-and-pop shops with schemes that can border on offensive – like when he convinced haunted-house visitors that they’d contracted an autoimmune disease “a step below AIDS” in order to give them a real scare. Other bits are hilarious, sophisticated illusions: To promote a petting zoo, he made a video in which a pig appeared to rescue a goat from drowning. In reality, it was a scheme involving divers and other underwater props, but most of the big morning shows played the clip, believing it was real.

Nathan for You returns tonight. I’m ready.

Meet the Font Detectives Who Ferret Out Fakery

Jason Tate Sep 20, 2017

Glenn Fleishman, writing for Wired:

What does international political corruption have to do with type design? Normally, nothing—but that’s little consolation for the former prime minister of Pakistan. When Nawaz Sharif and his family came under scrutiny earlier this year thanks to revelations in the Panama Papers, the smoking gun in the case was a font. The prime minister’s daughter, Maryam Sharif, provided an exculpatory document that had been typeset in Calibri—a Microsoft font that was only released for general distribution nearly a year after the document had allegedly been signed and dated.
A “Fontgate” raged.

The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Matt Bellinger

Jason Tate Sep 20, 2017

Jason Heller, writing about the passing of Planes Mistaken for Stars’ Matt Bellinger:

A basic obituary isn’t enough to sum up a life, let alone one that had as much impact as Matt’s.
When I met Matt in 1998, I had yet to even dream of being a journalist. Back then, I worked the cash register at Wax Trax, while Matt and the other members of Planes lived in Peoria, Illinois, where they had grown up. Their singer-guitarist, Gared O’Donnell, visited Denver frequently in the ’90s to see his mom, who lived in Colorado.

iOS 11: The MacStories Review

Jason Tate Sep 19, 2017

iOS 11 is out today. As always, Federico Viticci over at MacStories has a fantastic review:

But perhaps more importantly, unlike iOS 10, iOS 11 presents a cohesive narrative for both the iPad and iPhone. A story where, for the first time in years, the iPad is informing some of the design principles and features of the iPhone’s software. Even from different angles, and each with its own past struggles, both acts in iOS 11 end up asking the same question:
Where does the modern computer go next?

Man Who Saved the World From Nuclear Armageddon in 1983 Dies at 77

Jason Tate Sep 19, 2017

Matt Novak, writing for Gizmodo:

On September 26, 1983, Soviet military officer Stanislav Petrov received a message that five nuclear missiles had been launched by the United States and were heading to Moscow. He didn’t launch a retaliatory strike, believing correctly that it was a false alarm. And with that, he saved the world from nuclear war. But now reports have surfaced that Petrov died this past May. He was 77 years old.

The $25 Million Inauguration

Jason Tate Sep 18, 2017

Associated Press:

The opening concert featuring Toby Keith and Three Doors Down was broadly similar to concerts put on for Obama in 2009 and Bush in 2005 — except for the cost and size.
Bush’s inaugural committee spent $2.5 million on its concert on the National Mall. Obama’s concert had 10,000 ticketed seats — twice the size of Trump’s — and cost less than $5 million, said Kerrigan, and was produced at a high enough level that HBO paid for the rights to telecast it.
“I couldn’t tell you how we possibly could have spent $25 million on a concert,” said Kerrigan.

$25 million for 3 Doors Down and Toby Keith? Um, sounds like the “best deal maker” got fleeced.

Apple’s Craig Federighi Answers Some Face ID Questions

Jason Tate Sep 18, 2017

Matthew Panzarino, writing for TechCrunch:

The simple answer, which is identical to the answer for Touch ID, by the way, is that Apple does not even have a way to give it to law enforcement. Apple never takes possession of the data, anonymized or otherwise. When you train the data it gets immediately stored in the Secure Enclave as a mathematical model that cannot be reverse-engineered back into a “model of a face.” Any re-training also happens there. It’s on your device, in your SE, period.

Rolling Stone to Be Put Up for Sale

Jason Tate Sep 18, 2017

The New York Times:

And so, after a half-century reign that propelled him into the realm of the rock stars and celebrities who graced his covers, Mr. Wenner is putting his company’s controlling stake in Rolling Stone up for sale, relinquishing his hold on a publication he has led since its founding.
Mr. Wenner had long tried to remain an independent publisher in a business favoring size and breadth. But he acknowledged in an interview last week that the magazine he had nurtured would face a difficult, uncertain future on its own.

My Home Screen

Jason Tate Sep 15, 2017

Yours truly was asked to talk a little bit about my iPhone home screen over at MacSparky.1 It’s basically a picture of my home screen and some commentary about the apps I use the most. I’ve had a few people ask me about the second screen on my phone, so there’s a screenshot of that below for anyone curious.

Colin Kaepernick Has a Job

Jason Tate Sep 13, 2017

Rembert Browne, writing for Bleacher Report:

Here in Turlock, he absorbed every survival skill necessary to live phenomenally among white people, so expertly that they begin to make assumptions—not that you think you’re white, but that you’ve stopped concerning yourself with That Race Stuff, that you are finally content. It is a commonly unfair expectation thrown upon many an agreeable non-white person in a white space in America. But as a black man with a black biological father and a white biological mother, adopted by loving white parents who raised him in a majority white town to become a star three-sport athlete, a God-fearing Christian and a model citizen, this went well beyond the experience of a privileged American jock.

Helluva read. Highly recommended.

Equifax’s Unacceptable Unaccountability

Jason Tate Sep 12, 2017

Farhad Manjoo, writing at The New York Times:

If a bank lost everyone’s money, regulators might try to shut down the bank. If an accounting firm kept shoddy books, its licenses to practice accounting could be revoked. (See how Texas pulled Arthur Andersen’s license after the Enron debacle.)
So if a data-storage credit agency loses pretty much everyone’s data, why should it be allowed to store anyone’s data any longer?
Here’s one troubling reason: Because even after one of the gravest breaches in history, no one is really in a position to stop Equifax from continuing to do business as usual. And the problem is bigger than Equifax: We really have no good way, in public policy, to exact some existential punishment on companies that fail to safeguard our data. There will be hacks — and afterward, there will be more.

J.J. Abrams Returns for ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’

Jason Tate Sep 12, 2017

J.J. Abrams has signed on to return and write and direct Star Wars: Episode IX. The movie will be out on December 20th, 2019.

J.J. Abrams, who launched a new era of Star Wars with The Force Awakens in 2015, is returning to complete the sequel trilogy as writer and director of Star Wars: Episode IX. Abrams will co-write the film with Chris Terrio. Star Wars: Episode IX will be produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Abrams, Bad Robot, and Lucasfilm.